an ATP won't fix stupid. Just look at the Captain of that ExpressJet flight. She couldn't think for herself.
Actually, this might prove the theory. If an ATP were required, judging by her behavior, she may not have had the intestinal fortitude to continue her training to that level and quit before she even got on with a carrier. Someone else that had come up the hard way through determination and grit, would have been in the captains seat and got those poor souls off. Just a hypothesis.