African Drunk,
Again, I take your point, but I think your view is a little flawed, if I may be so bold?
I did a CAP509 upgrade course back in 1998/1999 and left with a grand total of 36hrs twin time in a Seneca. I was in the right place at the right time and managed to get a job flying air taxi for a company I had had no previous contact with. Within a month and a half of starting with that company I as signed off on Cessna 310/402 and 404, the owner and Chief Pilot commenting I was just as good as any FI he had ever taken on (he had always previously only ever taken 700+ hr FIs for jobs). Now I was no star, just your average Joe, and many of my peers at OATS were every bit as competent as me. So, with around 300hrs TT I was flying single crew with 9 pax into EGLL in a 404. It was fantastic and to be totally honest I don't think I would have been any more competent flying a big piston twin after another 500hrs in a single, but there you go. What I do know is that when I had 700hrs TT I was a lot more competent than your average FI (no offence to the FIs, just that I'd now gained 500hrs on various piston twins, in all weathers IFR, into big and small airfields throughout northern Europe and the UK.)
So opinions need to based around facts to have any value and I'm not trying to argue, just to point out a fact that contradicts the opinion.
Sadly the route I took is closed off to Wannabes with low hours now and they require 700hrs minimum to fly air taxi single crew under JAR, so it could be that in a roundabout way you are correct in that the air taxi operators don't like low hours guys now, but mainly because they are no use to them as they are unemployable.
PP