The bar exam should be appropriately designed to ensure competent legal help can be reliably obtained.
Customers of lawyers are typically ill-equipped to judge lawyer quality themselves.
I basically agree with that. But if a client wants to take his chance on a non bar-certified lawyer to save money, I suppose that should be an option - at least in theory. In practice., it would likely open a huge can of worms. Nowadays, we often see cases being overturned on appeal because the convicted party claims they received poor counsel. How would that scenario be handled if non-bar lawyers were allowed to practice?