Absolutely, but that just kinda reinforces my point: even drivers who went by the normal GP3/F3 to F3000/GP2/F2 route can be a bit messy when coming into F1, and then you have a lot of drivers (from the Red Bull side of things, usually) who did okay in Formula Renault 3.5 or some other relatively minor series, so that was reason enough to throw them quickly into F1, possibly burning their career forever. Buemi has been winning everywhere he went since he fell out of F1 after this. Drivers like Alguersuari barely had a chance. Kvyat was thrown into the deep water, failed at first but is seeminly having a bit of resurgence - if Red Bull wasn't so weak right now in terms of young drivers in line, he'd be out of the program too. Gasly is the worst performing driver in a Red Bull in the decade and he's only safe because there's just not many options available from their own programme.
In a way it's an interesting era. If you look back at 2006-2007, you could see drivers jumping in from any category and "easily" qualify a couple tenths away from the rivals. Even absolutely rookies would barely bang it because cars were comparatively easy to drive. The mere fact Hamilton was competitive from the first moment barely even making errors is testament not only to Lewis' status as one of the best drivers ever in F1, but also to how damn easy those cars were (compare it to 2008-2009, where traction control ban, KERS shenanigans, simpler aero, etc. caused TONS of errors and accidents, even by Hamilton himself). Now even a dominant force from F3 and F2 like Leclerc needs to adapt a bit, as his pace is not quite stable yet, his tyre management is not always ideal and he's doing errors which cause him to find the wall more often than one would think.
This is a part of F1 that works: Formula One cars are beasts that you need massive skills to handle. There was a time where any decent rookie could easily qualify close to the leading pack even on the first try. Nowadays it's a lot harder, and I personally like this. But it's also why drivers should not be skipping F3 and F2, because those extra races knowing the tracks, the Pirellis, understanding cars closer to F1's philosophy... those are very important formative years, and I am 100% convinced that drivers like Vettel or Verstappen would have found their peak performance a lot quicker had they had to sweat in those categories. Vettel, in particular, because 2005-2008 GP2 was insanely competitive. On top of my head, those seasons had drivers like Rosberg, Kovalainen, Piquet, Hamilton, Glock, Filippi, Di Grassi, Buemi, Zuber, Senna, Grosjean...
Formula 1 has a ladder to climb for a reason, drivers (young ones in particular) shouldn't be able to circumvent it completely imho.
