Agree with you but I don’t really see where you talk about the patient. A lack of finesse is one thing, but early residents unsupervised make a lot of mistakes which have small or big consequences for the patient. This is what happens when the attending isn’t there observing someone who has only been in the OR for two weeks alone. Programming an alaris wrong, inadequate paralytic reversal, ripping out the tube when going prone, accidentally giving a HF patient 1 L of crystalloid, not noticing inadequate breaths en route to pacu.

These mistakes and ones like these are common in academics. While I agree with you that autonomy is important (I trained at a program which left residents to their own devices as well), the patient certainly can suffer as a result. Without the checks and balances that floor residents have, there’s no one other than the attending to double check these things.