Painting: am I being unreasonable?

I could use some opinions here.

I hired painters to paint four modestly-sized rooms in our older house
(sizes range from about 15x15 to 8x12). Price was $2.1k, in a lowish
cost of living area. These guys came highly recommended, and they've
certainly been fast. Paint is mid-grade, some latex, some oil. The
contract specifies "patch, paint, trim"

My issue is with their wall and trim prep, or lack thereof. It's an
older house, so there are places where the old paint had chipped
(especially on the oil-based trim), places where drill holes in trim
needed to be patched, etc. With the job almost done, I'm seeing a
number of places where holes have been painted over but not patched,
and places where we'd patched previously but hadn't sanded the patches,
that were painted without sanding. In short, these guys put paint over
whatever what there, without much if any patching. (I have seen no use
of sandpaper or patching compounds, although I haven't been hovering
over them all that much.)

Should I be insisting on better, or is this pretty standard? My
feeling is that I could have done better had I done it myself, at least
in terms of wall and trim prep.

Unlike many of the trades, there are some jobs that anyone can do.
Anyone can paint. If you want painting done fast and cheap, you get
some paint, brushes, a bunch of friends, some rocking music, and
pizza. And you live with the results which, though they may be
distressing, are mainly cosmetic.

That leaves the only reason to hire professional painters is that they
do a professional job. They do the prep work, they pay attention to
detail. So if you care enough to hire professional painters, you
should get a professional job. The walls should look no less than
perfect.

You are not being unreasonable. Hopefully they will correct the
problems and should you ever recommend these people to anyone else, be
honest about what happened.

BTW, you said "guys." How many? My interior painter is solo or works
alongside another and always does a great job. OTOH, the time I had
the exterior done, that painter did the house but also had "helpers"
whom he did not supervise well (he went off and did another job while
they did trim). This was not good and I won't use him again.

Perhaps your painter didn't supervise closely.

BTW, you do have to watch everyone closely (though surreptitiously)
unless you know them. Don't be afraid to stop and cut your losses if
necessary. I had to do that with the exterior guy.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Don't be a doormat. They didn't patch, they didn't sand, tell them they
have to do it. Simple as that.