While not an ultimate predictor, total time in the past was a reasonable facsimile of the type of experience you had as a pilot (at least on the civilian track).
At 500 hours, you had 250 hours of dual given. You usually had a more senior CFI check your pre-solo/pre-checkride students. You think you're hot stuff.
At 1,000 hours, you had 750 hours of dual given. You'd made a lot of calls on soloing students, sending them for checkrides and other PIC tasks, like judgment calls on the weather, maintenence and wacko schemes from your boss. Sometime around 600 hours, you had a student try to kill you wrestling during a crosswind landing. 50 hours later a different student tried to spin you into the ground. You soiled your pants and realized you don't know nuffin' 'bout nuffin'
At 1,200 hours, you were probably competent to avoid killing yourself in a 210 flying checks. Around 1,300 hours you had to declare an emergecy and do a ILS to near zero zero because the weather the company provided was WRONG about fog. You soiled your pants again.
At 1,500 hours, you were probably the same in a Baron or 310. You'd seen 300 hours of crap weather, hand flying, weird MX breakdowns and, oh yea, wacko schemes from your boss. At 1,700 hours, the "it always does that" wandering prop govenor on the left side goes ape, and the connecting rod (on the pilot side) punches through the crank case. You soil your pants yet again while you do the VOR-B with winds at 30kts, gusting to 40. With ice.
At 1,800 hours, you were probably safe to put in the right seat of a 1900, BAe 31/32, Metroliner or similar conveyance. At 1900 hours, you and your captain are going into an outstation with questionable weather after dodging TRWs for the last hour. The company station is the "weather observer", and when you call for the conditions, they reply "what do you need?"
At 2,800-3,000 hours, you had seen enough, and made enough PIC calls to be relatively safe in the left seat of the above. You are JUST starting to realize what you don't know nuffin' about, but make allowances for it.
THIS was the path that the vast majority of pilots took. Its just the way it was. So there was a predictability about competence that was associated with a certain amount of total time. It wasn't about time, it's about soiled pants.
NOW you get a pilot who flew a G1000 equipped 172. NEVER instructed. Went from that to the right seat of a RJ. Flew right seat for 2000 hours watching the autopilot fly and never making the hard decisions. The dispatcher or CA made all the calls. Now you're dumped in the left seat. The old metrics no longer apply.
THIS is where the abinitio training breaks down. All the sim time in the world, and all the canned "events" taught by people who never saw the inside of a real cockpit, and who's major catestrophe was dropping his bag of Funions while working the sim panel DOESN'T WORK. This WILL NEVER replace the experience from making the decisions you have to make in the real word. The stuff that gives you INSIGHT as to how things really work, and how to keep your top screwed on when the chips are down.
So endeth the lesson. Now you kids get off my lawn.
Richman