When you look at new pilots in the airline training pipeline you will find low timers with excellent skills who make excellent pilots and vice versa. The key here, if you really want safety, is better training. Hire a low time pilot with a commercial multi give them more sims and lots of OE. This way you know what you are getting. If the normal course is 8 sims and 35 hours of OE you might triple that for a person with less than 500 hours and double it for a persona with 1000 hours. This allows the airlines to get the pilots they need and insure they get quality training. From personal experience hours doesn't tell the full story but more experience is always helpful. The current rules would not stop someone from buying a Cessna 172 and flying it around for the fun of it and build time.