On the other hand, you have to be pretty damn amazing to fly wingtip-to-wingtip like they do at any altitude without crashing. Not sure how high they were flying today, but from the airshows in the past I know that they don’t fly OVER the skyscrapers, they fly BETWEEN them (I have actually been in one of the Loop towers and looked DOWN at one of those jets passing by). That sort of flying requires a level of skill and discipline which is just not that common.
It’s not just being “stunty”, either - being able to cover hundreds of miles to arrive over a precise spot at a precise time is another form of precision. Not sure if in-air fueling is involved in any of that, but it might be and if it is that’s another skill to be practiced.
You know what’s funny? I’m actually a pilot but I don’t feel I have enough knowledge to speculate on what sort of tasks go into a demonstration team proficiency flight.
Frankly, I don’t know how many discrete tasks these pilots do in one of these fly-bys. I do know that part of their “mission” is outreach and showing the public what the hardware looks like in motion.
And you are, in fact, wrong - formation flying at the distance and speed they do IS a type of stunt flying.