there is little doubt in my mind that aterpster knows what he is writing about. the exact regulations may have been tweeked over the years but the idea is that a pilot does have to familiarize himself with the route he will fly and the airports he will serve.
My jepp book is loaded with nice color photos of some airports, usually they are in mountains or on mesas and I am required to look at them. there is a bbriefing page which tells me the wx is a continental climate and to watch out for deer on the runway and birds at the garbage dump.
When I started with my airline, it was largely flying on the east coast of the USA. I had learned to fly and done my time in regionals on the west coast. Ask me how to go to Lake Tahoe, no problem. But I had never been to Indianapolis in my life.
So I always used everything for those first flights into new to me airports. Visual orientation to landmarks, LOMs, VOR, asking ATC Radar for point outs etc.
One of my first flights as copilot the captain and I were going to IND and he kept yelling at me, "the reaking airport is over there, you don't need the ILS". I insisted. He , who had been flying there for decades, had the wrong airport insight (at night). So we did the ILS and landed at the right airport.
To his credit, the next day he bought me breakfast and apologized. We got along fine after that.
YOU ARE NEVER TOO GOOD TO ALWAYS BE SURE. I even check my gear on short final at least three times. Same with flaps for takeoff.