Any problems I had with FO's (maybe once a year) was with experienced SFO's with 4000hrs+ who did not come through CTC or Oxford. Sure sometimes you need to coach a bit, but that's usually due to uneconomic flying and being overly cautious with descent profiles and/or coaching through visual approaches.
Now I know this and manual thrust is very scary in the easyJet world, but I would put that down to the attitude of certain captains from a certain island, not down to the FO's who are actually eager to maintain their flying skills and willing to learn.
Maybe you overestimate your own skills when you had 200hrs. I'm however sure that you had to be coached and made errors that everybody makes. But as far as I see the cadets are excellent and fly very well indeed and they learn very fast.
As for loyalty and pride, easyJet does not encourage this. Just look at the quality of the uniform they supply and the way they reward loyalty by skipping eligible FO's in favour of DEC's.
Oh and No I didn't come through CTC or Oxford nor am I affiliated to them, so I have absolutely zero interest in promoting their product. I'm sure that MON pilots are excellent operators, but as far as I'm concerned they can join the back of the queue. They would scream murder if MON would employ DEC's as they have a seniority list.