air awarness can be gained in the speed events, tell me, can you launch off lifts going over 100 km/h and travel huge distances on 200-215cm skis, and not die? these guys have pretty good air awarness to be able to control their body position, if their tips go just a little too high then that will screw them up and then theyll bail real bad.
plus as i said racing doesnt only let you kill groomers, you can ski powder jsut as well.
and lets see, if you raced, chances are you did it for at least a little while, and that would make you good enough to ski gates, groomers, powder. thats accounts for Big Mountain skiing, Glade skiing, trail skiing(icy conditions, slush, corduroy), at my mountain we trained in moguls so you could really get body movment. so that taught us how to ski moguls too. so that pretty much leaves you with newschool and aerials taht it doesnt teach you, so id say it gets you to be a well rounded skier.
He who dares wins