As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. The NEC is fairly complex, and there are lots of gotchas and techniques that you really only learn by doing it

As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. The NEC is fairly complex, and there are lots of gotchas and techniques that you really only learn by doing it for some time alongside someone experienced that can guide you. If it was your house, would you want the equivalent of a bootcamp electrician mucking around with minimal oversight? Sure, there are inspectors, but they can't be expected to catch 100% of the issues, and most people wouldn't want the job to take 3 times as long as the junior electrician is forced to redo huge amounts of work. That said, there should be stricter requirements for offering apprenticeships. If the law requires it to work, anyone that has achieved that status should be mandated to take on X apprentices over their career.