I read about half of the opening post but I think I saw where it was going. 95% of us that DID get hired couldn’t get hired without prepping. They aren’t asking crazy hard questions and doing weird interviews to see what you are like every day. They are holding out hoops to see who jumps through them. It’s not a matter of being smarter, in my opinion, it’s just a matter of separating the guys that put effort in from those that say “I’m a good pilot. They should hire me as I am.”
I got light gun signals on my test. I had a question saying “to cross fix XYZ at 10,000 feet, what degree PITCH change do you need to make to cross the fix level?” I will never use those in my life. But Delta held out the hoop, so I jumped.
I don’t think they were saying “we don’t want this type of aviator” so much as saying “we want guys that want to be here and will jump through hoops to do so.”