I also think this is pretty much spot-on. The 1500 hour had/has an effect on the pipeline, but it is not the 'imminent death of US aviation'. It's a part of the puzzle, but not the key part.
What I do agree with the OP on(I think anyway) is that they type of flying has not prepared some candidates for the challenges of flying in the wilderness. I've ridden with a few younger pilots recently who were great at following a magenta line, and never deviated 100' from assigned altitude, but their stick skills in making the plane do as they command were pretty lacking. As I'm not a CFI, I can only explain to someone that excess kinetic energy on a 8000' paved runway isn't the same at all as excess energy on 1800' gravel, with a 16kt xwind and near gross weight. Moving the controls, and managing a flight are fine for people with 800-1200 hours, but I want to know if those hours were spent droning along with the A/P in capture while they monitor the progress and weather. I would rather have someone with 400 hours of TW/rotorcraft in back country or pipeline than 1500 hours pushing a King air from DAL > ABQ > LAS > PHX 8 times a month. Qualitatively quite different, but the feds only see the quantity. Mistake.