I have never denied a strong didactic background is essential, that is what a large amount of anesthesia school is about. You take a strong clinician and give a rigorous didactic course and clinical course in anesthesia. It is you that has discounted the clinical skills learned as a nurse over and over with comments such as
Hey Stan, how much of your 12 hour shift in the ICU directly translated over into the delivery of anesthesia? Conversely, how much of that time was learning skills and procedures that wouldn't translate efficiently (in terms of time spent doing it versus how long it would take a non-nurse to learn them) - charting, nursing care, calling and paging docs
Take a person without a strong clinical background and give them a didactic is like a mechanic who has learned his trade by reading a manual without touching a car, or an MD who has no contact with patients, strong didactic preparation poor clinical preparation. This is the route you have chosen, I am sure at this point you may have noticed how clueless some of your peers are concerning real clinical issues. Enjoy.