Why would it be ridiculous? There are American MD80s that are /I that fly in and out of Class B airspace on a daily basis! Any plane should be able to transition Class A through G airspace with or without RNAV, as long as they know how to operate their plane and instruments. You don't have to be RNAV to get in or out of Class B. Case in point, those Amflight and Pac Valley C208s that come in all the time. I can guarantee that none of those are RNAV.
I don't mean as a regulatory requirement, I mean (1) as just a reasonable expectation, and (2) as a practical matter for transitioning from the flight levels through busy corridors at high speeds.
Re: (1), I would say - show me an Eclipse owner who isn't bummed about carrying a Garmin 496 around in their VLJ, and I'll concede the point
Re: (2) I would argue the Caravans are a different matter I think, since they're low & slow. I'm not a controller but when I've flown low & slow planes into busy airports, it seems like the controllers have a separate game plan on how to handle me. Kinda like when an 80-year old crosses the street - nobody honks their horn to tell the guy to speed up.
As for the MD80s, all the AA flights I found in a brief search on Flightaware were /Q. Can you cite a specific example? But taking your word for it, /I
is basic RNAV, so they have more than the guy in the clip. But if they just have VOR/DME I guess they would be in the same boat, unable to go direct CLARR. Those AA MD80s really don't have the capability to go direct to an intersection?
OK, so maybe "ridiculous" is a bit harsh...I'll rephrase - I think it's uncool