I was way more booksmart when I was an active CFI.
And by the way, not all CFIs are 500 hour kids, but some good ones are.
Mesa needs some help of course, but it looks like they are trying. Sometime's it can be hard to delienate between the cool Mesa guy, and the one with the iPod and spiky hair complete with cocky attitude because dammit.. he flies jets! They have a bad rep for hiring some real tools, but hats off to the dudes that keep it real over there- you're tougher than me. Maybe when the shortage is over they can raise the standards again for the hiring over there.
How is John Orn safe at night? You would think someone would have lost it by now. Not a suggestion by the way.