I (and you) can’t speak for the Marine promotion culture. There have definitely been some pointed criticisms from Marines of the promotion system. Flying planes is irrelevant to the discussion. Mattis was a ground pounder and a political appointee (SecDef). I arrived in the desert for a CAOC deployment the day he took over as SecDef. He didn’t change the ROE, but he did change the tone (for the better). Promotions have been tough to get right for as long as standing armies have existed. Our system sucks, but it beats our competitors.