Let's say there were 2 guys; one with 1000 hours air taxi and the other straight out of flight school. I would give them both an assessment and I think I honestly wouldn't know which guy would have more experience.
I think ability counts much more than hours. I have seen some guys who has "thousands of hours" and yet can't fly a SE ILS within limits.
Rather than judge on the amount of hours they have, just put them in the sim and see what happens.