Lamber,
I agree with what you're saying. In my book the first qualification of a good baseball coach is his ability to develop talent by teaching the game. If they don't have that, they're in the wrong arena.
That said, the game itself teaches many important things that parallel life. The very best coaches are able to use baseball and normal situations in life to both their own and their players benefit.
For example: to get the very best results concerning potential, there's much more involved than simply learning how to do the fundamentals. Just as in life, a player needs to learn mental toughness, perserverence, and how to be a winner.
When I used to coach we would tell our players "there are only 4 things that create winning". 1. Talent 2. Effort 3. Intelligence 4. Luck. Every ingredient of winning or being successful is somehow involved in one of those four things. Often one ingredient leads to more success in another, such as more effort causing more talent. More effort, intelligence and talent causing more luck and so on.
These things are very important in baseball and perhaps even more important in life. The same 4 things can create success in everything. So if a coach can teach his players the importance of forming good habits, working hard, never quitting, and learning as much as possible, he will have the best baseball players possible, while he is also teaching young players how to succeed in life.
However, not all baseball coaches have the necessary ingredients it takes to be successful. All do not understand the importance of intelligence for example. Some don't really understand effort and others can't even recognize talent. They usually are the ones who feel unlucky.
They don't understand that "makeup" is an important ingredient that can seperate their players from the pack. There's a reason that MLB scouts are big on makeup. Talent is easy to see, but it alone don't win championships or get everyone to the Big Leagues. People can argue and bring up the "Yankees", but I can tell you, some of the best "makeup" guys in the Big Leagues are on the New York Yankees roster.
Things like confidence and everything else a person can think of are a result of those 4 ingredients of winning. And two of those 4 ingredients are absolutely in your control each and every time you set foot on a baseball field.
If all coaches were equal, how could we pick out the best ones?