Hey Iain:
As you can tell from the responses, most people agree that fancy equipment will never replace the skills of a good operator.
You have however brought up an interesting question about new operators, and you do have other reasons to worry.
I remember in the late 90's when Steadicam was seen as a special skill and was therefore paid $7-$20/hour over a regulator operator. I'm talking TV here. Then there was an influx of new operators that were extremely hungry to get in and get working. Guys that would work for any rate, and now it would seem that getting paid $1/hour over scale for doing Steadicam is not unusual. That's right... ONE DOLLAR PER HOUR...... Series PM's love this kind of deal. They ultimately don't care who's doing the job as long as it's cheap. This is where Feature Films differ. Feature PM's don't fall for that kind of shit.
Now since you make your living in TV land, watch out for what's next. Because the next batch of new hungry guys won't have any room to offer great deals on the hourly, so what comes next??? That?s right the kit rental. Mark my words, it won't be long before you're up against a new guy for some series and the new guy is offering his complete Steadicam package for $100/week. What does the new guy care, he just want's to be an operator.
Food for thought.
Tim Merkel