Why does it take twice as many hours for people to get their licenses today in " easier " to fly airplanes?
(1) How long did those 30 hour PPLs take? Were they spread over two years of weekends with many weather cancellations as a modern UK PPL typically is?
(2) How much in the way of modern kit, airspace, radio, law, etc, had to be picked up after completion of the 30 hour PPL? (Just for fun, let's see if we can keep GPS out of this one, eh?)
When I hired pilots I looked for the most skilled
Sure. But most PPLs are not looking to be hired to fly.
When I hire programmers I look for people who have written assembler, even if just a few lines at college - then they have some clue as to what a computer actually is. But I don't try to insist that people learning to program as a hobby bother with assembler if they don't want to.