Good post Crab. And DB , agree that the real issue is trying to understand and address why errors are made. But you can't quite say "Forget pilot error"! Where it exists - and that's in most accidents, let's face it - it should be identified as such, partly so we all have heightened awareness of our fallibility as pilots, the need to concentrate 100% and not to just buck-pass personal responsibility to corporate culture etc, and particularly to trigger the process of understanding and addressing of the cause(s) of the pilot error.
Starting at the beginning, what, if any, academic qualifications are required to become a commercial pilot today? How bright do you need to be?