Emotive language Beagle but I agree with your line of thought. Example.....
I was in the simulator a couple of years ago with a colleague (Captain, 10,000 hours experience, 3,000 on type; type was a twin jet small airliner). We were dealing with a single engine problem of some sort, he was the Flying Pilot and I was doing some sort of checklist procedures (can't remember what). He had the Auto Pilot engaged and he gave me control for some reason (can't remember - doesn't matter) but, just as I said "I have ....." the AP tripped out and the aeroplane rapidly rolled to the left and dropped it's nose. I applied corrective controls but we reached about 90 deg bank and 20 deg nose down before it started to come back, we lost about 500' which was somewhat of a concern as we had started at about 1800' agl.
The other pilot had been increasing power to level off just before he gave me control; as he increased power he had not applied any rudder nor had he trimmed the rudder so the AP had been applying more and more aileron to try to fly straight on the selected heading until eventually it reached its limit and tripped off.
So far so what but, now the scary bit! As I got us under control my colleague said "I'm glad you were flying it, I couldn't have done that"! It was actually a very simple upset recovery but with little time to spare due to the speed of departure and the low height at which it happened. We did have a discussion after the sim about recoveries.
Inadequate training? Inappropriate mental attitude? Lack of self confidence? Probably all three but it all added up to a "people tube minder" who was not able to fly his aeroplane when the need arose.
I'm sure that many others can tell similar stories. It is a worry and I do believe that more aerobatics, manoeuvring and upset recovery training should be included in an airline pilots background before he is let loose to run around the world in a people tube.
Happy landings
3 Point