Huey Racer
You've kind of hit the nail on the head. Those of us charged with the task of training can observe a stark difference between those that have been through some kind of selection process (military and 'cadet' schemes for example) and those that are 'self-selected'. The former are usually a lot more consistently able whereas the self-selected are highly variable. The election process becomes the licensing system so a weak system allows through some pretty awful folk who really should be doing something else.
The other dilemma is that course designers for the relevant training programmes can only design ONE course that must fit all comers for it must be 'approved' by the authorities. That is further complicated by the fact that those delivering the courses (mostly TRI's and SFI's) are only given the skills to teach 'competent' aviators and therefore struggle to succeed when teaching the vast number of those that may be capable but have been poorly prepared in their past history.
Those with not only an FI rating but the necessary years at the coalface teaching 'pipeline' students, will struggle too but at least they have the necessary background to give them a fighting chance of developing the necessary skills to be able to manage.
Sorry about the Thread Drift
G.