Just my normal caustic self  

Did the same thing as you Gee for a 135 company in the northeast and can report the same findings.  So much variation is in the flight school these pilots came out of, night and day experiences.  As much as I would love to see flight instruction be a more respectable job for the experienced pilot it just doesnt happen here in the USA.  Getting paid at the time $15hr to teach in R22's was something you would never get a 3000hr pilot to come back to. Sometimes you have a flight school where the owner still teaches so you can have a more experienced CFI but its unfortunately rare.  

First day of ground school at my company and you could immediately pickout the part 61 vs part 141 flight school pilots and beyond that, the ones who taught at a 61 or 141 to get to 1000hr.  Then those who left after getting their commerical and went to fly tours at Myrtle Beach and did nothing but that to get to 1000hrs.  

The flight school certainly has an effect on the pilots they turn out, we almost hired exclusively from one flight school because they consistantly put out quality pilots that were fast learners and fit well into the NYC area.  That flight school was started by a former Vietnam pilot who also owned the airport and was the DPE for 30 years.  School then sold to a utility pilot in 500's and Huey's who would have the students trained to do ground crew work during external load jobs.  The same DPE was doing almost all private, Comm and CFI check rides up till a few years ago.  The IFR DPE was former military and also flew 76's IFR daily, both of them made sure to pass down real world standards above the PTS.  The owner of the school also did special courses intended to pass down knowledge that the average 200CFI would not know of regarding commerical operations and students were not allowed to even begin teaching as a CFI at the school unless they had gone through those courses.  

All that combined with it being Part 141 and having a few high time CFI's who stuck around to continue to pass the knowledge down was key.  We had commercial operators in the area who would come in once a month to talk to everyone and again pass down that knowledge to the CFI's and students, sometime is was the local HAA, corporate, factory test pilots etc.  

On the flip side I've seen flight schools that were only part 61, only 2 instructors that barely had 200hrs, and none of the above.  No supervision, no ground school, just go out and do "cool stuff" and they pass their checkride and continue passing nothing but the bare minimums downhill.  Mind you this isnt a knock against part 61 outright, I've seen schools that while they are 61 they behave like 141 and do great things.  Just a general observation after 80+ 1000hr pilots came through our doors in a few short years.