IDK, man.
We are what we are, by choice or definition.
I only knew one airline captain personally; Mr. Davis, our next door neighbor years ago who flew for TWA. I was a kid who had a "place" in those long-ago days but he treated me well as I visited in his home. Didn't know much more about him but was a tangential part of his too-short life. I didn't get to go to his funeral although my parents did. We were shielded from that kind of thing ages ago as children, although I doubt now that was a healthy practice.
Doubt I'll ever fly again but I still hold airline captains, and first officers too, in high regard, along with cops and firefighters and those who serve in EMS. Just me, I suppose, but I grew up with men who won a world war and flew over a nation after in many cases. It might be corny now, but there was a time they mattered. They flew to new places and were more than systems' managers, once upon a time.
Not that it really matters, but I care that
@derg and @cherokeecruiser and others are airline pilots, and that there are still pilots who deliver the plastic dog poop, or whatever, into remote places on stormy nights.
I think it matters as much as you rigging and fitting a plane so they can do it