It had more to do with the technology at the time. You were the automation and had to know everything at a different level. Some of it was just old school mentality carried over from the military, but knowing the max start temp for every different version of the JT8 were just numbers that you needed to know. As far as mishaps, there just isn’t much to mess up these days. Modern airplanes have protective features where you just watch the magic, and where a computer does what we used to when there is a problem. I like this better too, but sometimes I think that they have gone too far. I get the mentality saying that if you can’t control it, don’t worry about it, but there is a lot of value in extensive systems knowledge that can really aid in trouble shooting a problem. MCAS would be an example of this. I don’t care how many PSI open a valve, but I’d like to know how it works in more detail than we get now. I guess I’ve just turned into the old fart.