Sethdg360,
My apologies - I never intended to suggest that instructing should not be counted towards unfreezing an ATPL because the instructor was not handling the aircraft all the time - after all in a two crew airliner the pilots are only handling the controls directly for a small part of each alternate sector (assuming that the auto-pilot is functional, of course).
The point I was making was that if time spent instructing could not be counted towards the hours required for a CPL/ATPL it would prevent people becoming flying instructors purely to build hours. If you think about it that is not the same as saying that instructing does nothing to improve your airmanship, or flying ability, or lookout, or RT or anything else and is therefore worthless.
Whilst I agree that it would be almost impossible to introduce such a scheme in reality, if it was the case that there was no route from instructing to commercial flying then the results would be :
1. Higher instructor salaries as there would not be a huge supply of people prepared to work at flying clubs for low wages.
2. More airline sponsorship and/or airlines willing to hire newly qualified graduates of modular or integrated courses, as there would be no 2000 hour ex instructors looking for commercial jobs.
This would be of obvious benefit to both career instructors and those aiming for the airlines - and of course is purely hypothetical, as it would be totally unfair to anyone already in your situation.