olasek,
I want to take issue with some of the things you've said. I am guessing from 'we GA pilots' that you are indeed a GA pilot who flies around in a C172 or the like?
I am an ex military pilot. I am used to flying VFR at low level in bad weather, maybe at night. I didn't practice much IFR flying, so when it did come about I had to work hard to keep up even though it was less technical. That was because it wasn't well practiced.
We can assume the 777 guys on this aircraft were very very proficient at IFR flying, decent profile, avionics manipulation, managing the automatics ect ect - but they probably weren't that well practiced with a visual approach.
My point is, if you do something day in day out you get good at it and no matter how easy the thing you rarely do is (or perceived to be) there is a good chance you'll screw it up because you don't practice it.
To summarize, you're rant about how these guys should have picked a different career ect ect ect is total f**king horses**t. You don't have a clue what you are talking about - I do. I have done demanding, technical, multi discipline flying.
I think there is some truth in what an earlier poster said. Someone has to make a choice - if people aren't practicing visual approaches enough then the industry should either a) give them more practice b) make IFR approach mandatory - a diversion with out a instrument system to get you on the ground. It doesn't seem to me that you can have it both ways or just say 'You're a pilot - you should be able to do it'. You can't un-crash after someone has screwed up out of bravado or what ever it is.