Steve
You say you are not deliberately trying to be obtuse, but then you continue with your same line of argument, ignoring what 99% of us are saying. For you to argue that there is no link between hours and experience is just nuts.
I had a student once. A good guy, however, every time I would begin to debrief him he would begin to talk. He would talk and not listen. I couldn't get my point across to him because he would never stop telling me why he did what he did; or that somebody told him this, and someone else told him that. I thought long and hard about what to do and came up with a solution. I told him that from this point forward if ever he interrupted me and began to talk out of turn, I would respond with the word BINGO.
Well...it only took a couple of BINGO's before he stopped talking, and began to listen.
Steve.....I am yelling out BINGO...stop and think about it.
In 99% of the time, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Offering poor recompense leads to employing poor staff.....if you want good pilots, you hire the best, train them well, and pay them well.
That was not happening at Colgan Air or any number of low cost carriers that were skirting the laws to hire the least experienced pilots, and paid peanuts on their training and compensation.
The results were (and continue to be) predictable.