"What is Truth", said Pilate.
Ian,
I'm sorry if I've touched a raw nerve, but I must stand by my own firm recollection. At Carlstrom on 42C (for I can only speak of that: things may have been different elsewhere), I never heard of a single case of one of our number being "washed out" (and sent back to Canada) for any reason other than flying inadequacy or flying discipline.
As any such case would have been a cause célèbre, it would have been widely discussed among us: everyone would have known about it. Simply, there was no such thing ever reported. It would have been impossible to keep it quiet.
What other people may have reported regarding different places at different times I do not know and cannot comment upon. I only affirm what I know.
In any event, a fall in the failure rate from 40% to under 2% (almost overnight) for this reason alone, would imply previous indiscipline on a massive scale - almost a mutiny - and that cannot have escaped record.
Sorry, but I can add nothing more by way of a solution to the problem.
Cheers, Danny.