Airplanes are a mature technology.

Magic materials (light, strong, flexible, etc) and hyper efficient power plants that improve operating costs by 1 or 2% are probably a better bet than removing a couple of bozos at the front end who:

1. Aren’t that expensive in the grand scheme of things
2. Are extremely useful to blame when things go sideways (to be fair, it sometimes is pilot error)
3.Occasionally do something darned useful.