“ . . . and that isn't a black and white process”.
No, and I am not implying that it is. If pilot A is SAFE and pilot B is SAFER, there is simply no reason to value pilot B more than pilot A.
Impossible to agee, based on the following.
Safe is good enough.
It would be, if and only if "safe" was defined as "this pilot is 100% guaranteed not to crash into a mountain."
Your definition of "safe" appears to be "meets the minimum standards under satisfactory oversight". We would then have to define "satisfactory oversight" which generally involves observation of a few SIM rides a year and an annual or biannual line check - all of which only require "meets minimum standards".
Now we all have good days and bad days, but all I have to do is demonstrate minimum standards a few times a year and I am deemed "safe" under your definition.
My arguement aready stated was that there is no such thing as "safe"' only less safe or more safe.
What makes us more safe, as a herd, is the constant professionalism and desire to excel. That is, we are not, as a pilot group, content with minimum standard (or at least 99% of us are not).
If we were all told tomorrow, our salary is reduced to $20K, do you think we would maintain that constant professionalism and desire to excel? We would probably collectively start putting in the minimum required until we found another career that paid more.
What I'm trying to say is, you need the incentive of a decent reward to keep putting in the hard yards, hour of study, ambition to get the promotion, and disclipline for your own reputation, because it's worth it.
If every airline pilot was paid McDonalds wages your premise of minimum safety required would most certainly result in a smoking hole in the side of a mountain.
Would you agree that a safe pilot wouldn’t crash into a mountain?
As per the above, no I wouldn't.
Nor would I conduct a search for the cheapest surgeon in the country to treat my prostate cancer, despite the fact that the system has deemed him/her safe. When life and death is on the line, the dollars and cents become a slightly lower priority.
To put the ball back in your court:
Would you agree that safe pilots sometimes do crash into mountains and perhaps a more safe pilot wouldn't have?