kungfu panda,
the truth is somewhere between. I remember well an ex-colleague in a certain well known loco, who knew the manuals back to front, could recite SOP's to the nth degree with metronomic precision, & could perform an immaculate "double brief" /"circle to land procedure".
This is well & good, but if you asked him to perform a visual circuit/approach, with no use of his tried & tested "circle to land" procedure (which in any case usually resulted in turning final far too high. . .& then the REAL fun began !) his ineptitude beggared belief . . .and he was approaching Command. He became one of the youngest Capts in the Company, one of the youngest LTC's, one of the youngest TRE's, and eventually joined a "well known Middle East long haul carrier during the brief period they were accepting TRE's.
I would wager that even now if you put him downwind at some airport somewhere, & asked him to do a visual without any of his "toys", he would still be out of his depth.
As you say, lack of experience, and just as importantly, a very common culture, all too prevalent these days, that getting the job done using SOP's & automatics is all that matters. There is very little encouragement/incentive it seems for people to expand their skill set, indeed, things like visuals are considered risky from an OFDM point of view & avoided by a large percentage of drivers, particularly the 250hr Cadets, who have been indoctrinated since their early line training to do it the automated robotic way.
Sad, but Oh too true, SOP monkeys are too common, as they find out if their intended next company gives a Sim assessment based on basic handling.