Kharon, a good post.
Having observed the skill sets of one or two newbies fresh out of flying school, I have a suspicion you may be right, there does seem to be something lacking in their basic training.
Difficult to put your finger on it, but I suspect a lot of box ticking goes on during their early training as opposed to ensuring their competence levels.
I have some sympathy for our regulator as I believe competence can be a very esoteric subject and as we know our regulations in Australia fall under the criminal code where things must be in black and white.
The new massive part 61 attempts to set everything in cement by micro managing the entire process. The problem with that, I believe is there can be no allowance made for each individuals abilities, the whole process becomes massively expensive and encourages even more box ticking.
It would appear that Australia has priced itself out of the training of foreign students in favour of New Zealand, I believe Part 61 will do the same thing to our local market.