I'm with you all regarding being alarmed at the standard of refereeing being allowed to keep at such a low level. In my opinion it is so much more troubling that it is so inept and not only due to the man in the middle.
There are 5 paid referees that attend each match. The referee on the pitch, 2 assistant referees as linesmen, a 4th official and even 1 more in the stands as an official assessor.
At least 4 of those have inter-communication by radio. There is no excuse for missing infringements without at least one member of the "team" of officials seeing it happen and able to tell the others. Commonly, if there are complaints from players they are faced with yellow or red cards. If there are public complaints their answer is to add other paid referee to a game's , as in European competitions where they have yet 2 more on the goal lines. Even these 2 extra rarely add any value to infringements on the pitch.
We should copy some of our other sports such as cricket, rugby, tennis etc (with much less money in their game), by having TV replay facilities. It has been proven to be a fair method of reviewing decisions without adding significant extra time to matches.
It is about time referees put their house in order before many are made redundant through video refereeing.
I also think that supporters would welcome correct decisions, even if against their favourite team, cutting down on angry fans and subsequent violent behaviour.
