I didn't suggest zero tolerance - you did. That aside, I imagine there's a bit of a difference between an airliner orbiting at 2000 feet and a fighter beating up an airfield (where, presumably, it has business being anyway). I wouldn't mind a fighter pilot beating up a hangar; after all, it's what they do. We want fighter pilots who have a dab of flair.. within limits.
However, I wouldn't want to fly somewhere in the hands of someone who thinks he can throw an airliner about at 2000 feet in much the same way that I wouldn't mind a few minutes going sideways on ice or gravel with a rally pro but wouldn't fancy being driven into town by a bendy bus driver who fantasises about chucking it around a roundabout on its mirrors at 50 mph.
It's not so much what he did or what skilful flying that he's capable of; rather, what (deep down) his cavalier attitude towards regulation and his employer are like. I might like him as a bloke and I might want to have a beer with him because he's not vanilla in a magnolia world. But would I put him in a position of trust where lives are at stake and I am responsible for them? Probably not.