Wunwing, I understand that heavy jet maintenance is very different to light aircraft maintenance and the considerable knock on effects of an aircraft being stranded at a remote port.
I was trying to illustrate that if there is variations between GA maintenance providers then it's highly likely the same applies to heavy jet maintenance providers.
I agree regarding the skill levels you talk about. The ratio of 3.9 LAMEs for every AME is probably about right for the LAX setup, but is well out of whack for long serving skilled AMEs in Oz.
However the bean counters don't know the difference between the standards of an LAME in Oz to one in the US. They both have the same name so surely they have the same training/expertise.