This is half true. If you're in HS and you want to get a job as a commercial pilot (ATP) right out of the gate, yes you will need to pay for your flight training.
However, the vast majority of ATPs received their flight training in the military, for which they obviously did not have to pay. Part of this is the sheer number of hours you need to even apply for ATP jobs.
I was not aware of Langewiesche's book until now, so perhaps you can tell us if the automation handled the flare, which I believe would have been the most critical stage of this landing (if the fuselage had broken, as has happened in many other ditchings, it is unlikely that everyone would have made it out.) If so, did those systems compensate for the fact that the wheels were not down and so touchdown would be made on the engine nacelles with the fuselage closer to the surface than for a normal landing? From the video, it appeared to be a near-perfect three-point landing, which is not the attitude an airliner normally lands in.
Airline pilots today rarely fly light aircraft recreationally because they can't afford to. Airline pilots are paid much less than they used to be.[1] Regional airline pilots make $30K - $60K. Some bus drivers are paid more. Only senior pilots of major airlines break $100K today. Also, in the US, pilots usually have to pay for their own training.
As for "losing the basic skills", the author doesn't mention the best known example - the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at SFO. The pilots had to make a manual landing in clear weather, instead of using autoland, and they undershot the runway. Some of that was a lack of manual piloting skills, and some of that was mode trouble with cockpit automation. (This is a huge issue. Read crash reports, and all too often part of the problem was something being in the wrong mode.) On the other hand, the "miracle on the Hudson" of US Airways Flight 1549, which he does mention, was a triumph of automatic control - once the pilot decided to land on the river, the Airbus control system did a very good job of providing a smooth descent.[2]
[1] http://thetruthabouttheprofession.weebly.com/professional-pi... [2] http://www.amazon.com/Fly-Wire-Geese-Miracle-Hudson/dp/03126...