EEDSL
Yes there seems to be a bit of a trend for airline pilots to be unable to actually fly! However one has to look at the big picture. Before button-pushing was invented, pilots had to have enormous balls and steely eyes, however despite that they still crashed quite a lot.
After button-pushing they now crash a lot less, but when they do crash it does sometimes seem to be due to a lack of basic skills. But as a passenger I don't particularly care if the cause of accidents has shifted slightly, what I do care about is that the probability of an accident has reduced substantially. It is only pilots who are offended when crashery occurs due to lack of basic flying skills, the flying public doesnt give a flying whatsit which bit of human error caused the crash, they just don't want to be in a crash.
Obviously the optimal solution is that pilots are maestros both of button pushing and also manual flying skills. But given that we don't live in a perfect world and we have limited training and experience building time, that time is best spent minimising the risk of an accident rather than satisfying the purist desires of the manualflightfascists. Most pilot-caused accidents or serious incidents that I am aware of in my (ex) company have at their roots lack of technical understanding, poor CRM and decision making. Not lack of basic flying skills.
Bottom line is that you have to direct the resources where they will have the most benefit. And if you are only going to recruit and promote those with thousands of SPVFR hours, you are going to be very limited and obliged to recruit the dross. That is not going to help flight safety.