Peter
There are far too many pilots who make the knee jerk statement that
fuel exhaustion is the mark of a bad or poor pilot. As you point out,
fuel exhaustion is not always a failure of the pilot to put fuel in the
aircraft. I've had a couple of incidents when my engine quit with a
fuel problem. It was a fuel system problem.
Lots of happenings that the uninitiated will call poor piloting without
any of the facts surrounding the issue or incident. Those are the knee
jerkers I refer to and referred to in my original post on the subject.
Cheers
Selway Kid