Pickle,
I wanted to weigh in for what its worth. After much reflection and having many of the same thoughts you did, I think it comes down to a combination of factors all of which are ramblings:
1. If I'm not mistaken you're at a squadron that recently just transitioned (last couple of years). I think part of the problem you discuss is what I saw in my squadron. As we had the plane for longer and we had thoroughbred Cat 1s come in we were more confident in flying just the P8. This is a good and bad thing. We were excellent at the glass and the computers, shitty at the stick and rudder. Luckily we had O4 P3 dudes that knew how to fuckin fly. We taught them how to not drive the plane into the ground while on autopilot and they showed us how to fly without autopilot. As we grew as a squadron after the transition we developed the ability to be comfortable in both realms. Bridging two generations and two COMPLETELY different aircraft is no easy task.
2. Now having said that. We are just above worthless when it comes to tactically employing the plane. This in my humble opinion is a result of the safety culture that is so ingrained in our heads that taking any risk at all will results in consequences. We always have the discussions about risks outweighing the costs at during pilot training at 0 kts and 1g but we seem so risk adverse that sometimes it was hard to accomplish the mission.
3. Some of it is proficiency. Now this is due to necessity and the lack of it as well as lack of training. Flying low isn't necessary so it isn't trained to. As has already been touched on, the tech allows for prosecuting at a very high alt and the tactics allow for it. It's more comfortable flying CWS roll at 1500 in the middle of the night somewhere in the Atlantic than it is to incur a significantly larger amount of risk hand flying at 300 in the same circumstances. Rare is the case that I felt that I was getting a better product down low than high, with exception to onsta weather. There may come a time when my GPS buoys don't work right or at all and I need SPS to keep its shit together and therefore I don't think we can lose the low flying confidence and aptitude altogether. However, we don't train to it. We don't do it during the day, how in the hell are we going to be comfortable doing it at night? Furthermore, the only pilot training flights we do are bounce flights which are pointless. If you can land the plane, you can land the plane, I don't need a kajillion approaches to an ILS and another flaps 30 T&G. What I need is to get my 3P comfortable rolling that big ass plane on its side and getting to the spit. Some of the blame for this rests neatly at VP30's feet for taking nearly all the tactical flying out of the CAT 1 syllabus. I have no idea what a P3 CAT 1 syllabus looked like, but as a prior CAT1 P8 dude, it was an abortion. VP30 does a good job at providing a safe pilot. The maritime community as a whole relies on the fleet to get the nuggets up to speed more than any other community. We have that luxury though, we have two extremely experienced dudes or dudettes in the cockpit that tend to offset the inexperience that a nugget brings tactically. So by extension and necessity VP30 doesn't need to teach tactics. They need safe pilots out the door to the fleet. The weapons school is responsible for fleet pilot training. This is another problem, they are always looked at sideways by VP30. The competition for talent, resources, and clout is endless. If I may be so bold, the NFOs do a great job about disseminating tactics and training their TACCOs, but the pilots are bad at advancing the envelop. They have their projects that they work on but I've yet to see a MPRWS pilot over at the squadron doing something other than FIUT. MPRWS pilots are so focused on FIUT that they don't train upgrading pilots or run of the mill PPCs. I guess they hope that the IPs they train will take it back to the squadron. To top it all off, the SMTIs come to the squadron gung ho and ready to go to bring current tactics to the pilot cadre, only to be told they are the assistant TO and what does that mean? That means they get to be the leader of the sim bitches (IPs) sitting in the OFT going through another hot weather sim. If our syllabus to PPC focuses only on decision making and safely operating the aircraft how in the world can we expect war fighting pilots that want to push the envelop? We don't know how to push the envelop because we've been taught to stay safely and conservatively right smack dab in the middle of the envelop. Now there are tactics in that syllabus, that the MPRWS owns, of course but it isn't a focal point and a lot of times it is sandbagged.
4. We all want to be airline pilots and we are lazy. Humans are inherently lazy. So if you told me that I have an 8 hour mission ahead of me and it's going to be an all nighter. I'm gonna take off and point the plane in the right direction and click the autopilot on and I won't click it off until mins on the ILS at sunrise. During the transit, we'll sit there and talk about ratings, which company is the best to work for, who is hiring, how much money we'll make, and on and on. I am as guilty as the next dude and I sure as shit hope to eventually get a job at the show and I've got nothing against the dudes that want to fly airlines. But I didn't join the Navy to be an airline pilot, it will be a by product. The difference is some dudes are here to build flight hours and go on. They're only partly wrong, if that's your means to the end then more power to you. However, if that's your ends, you better ante the fuck up before you leave and do your duty. And your duty is the mission.
These are just ramblings and I'm not sure any of it is coherent or useful but this is what I've come up with.