To be fair though, aviation is much more regulated. If, and I am not
saying it should be, but if, boating was as regulated as aviation there
would be very, very, few boating fatalities.

I disagree. Aviation tends to sort out the idiots a lot faster. Both by
the technical requirements of actually learning to get a plane into the air
and by being completely unforgiving in accidents. Neither's true of
boating. That said, requiring more (heck, any) qualifications could be seen
as a good thing for boating.