Just out of curiosity, have you taken a First Aid Course, and if so, how recently?

I used to be a Saint John Ambulance of Canada instructor, and our First Aid Training emphasized the importance of bystanders having proper first aid training and the willingness to administer basic first aid and CPR when necessary. The canadian Red Cross manual is entitled "The Vital Link" and clearly indicates the importance of the first aid-trained bystander in filling the gap between the discovery of a medical emergency and the arrival of EMS.

In Canada, at least, the so-called Good Samaritan laws protect you unless you do something that is clearly negligent. I don't know what it's like in the US but I believe the Red Cross does cover legal liability in its training, more so than Saint John Ambulance.

All First Aid training emphasizes that you should not intervene if it puts you at risk. Headlines like "11 drown saving chicken; chicken survives" may seem funny to you, but when this really happened in Egypt, I bet the widows and orphans of the men who died in a well-meaning but misguided rescue attempt weren't laughing very hard. Of course, if you know the person is going to die unless you risk your life to save them, and you choose to do so, then I salute you; the danger is that if you don't at least stop and make that a conscious decision, then there is a grave risk that you may turn a casualty into a fatality. (The guy who got stuck in the well trying to rescue his chicken probably would have survived if he hadn't had 10 well-meaning relatives sitting on top of him.)

As far as getting a 2-day course on rescuing people in trapped building, my advice would be "Don't!" In an earthquake, maybe going in and administering first aid would be acceptable, but if you start shifting rubble around, you might precipitate a collapse that would kill you and the people you're trying to save. (If the building's on fire, that's a different story, of course.)

I'm not sure if this addresses your points or not. In Canada, I don't see any organized attempts to discourage people from taking First Aid courses by EMS personnel trying to protect their "turf". Maybe things are different in the States, but I'm inclined to disbelieve it.