Imam Abu Hanifa has transmitted hadith from 16(known) sahaba, among them, Anas ibn Malik, Jabir ibn Abdullah, Sahl ibn Saad, Abdullah ibn Jafar, Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa (RZA). It is known that since Abu Hanfia (R) was closer to narration of sahaba and/or some sahaba that Hanafi madhab is much more widely practiced.
My point was that their closeness to the Sahaba was much stronger than our closeness is today because the narration was much stronger and much alive in the people of those days than the people of today. If you point out a layman like me and ask me to tell the chain of narration of any hadith, I’d fail miserably. But if you had asked those pious and great Imams or even some of the people in those times, they would tell you right away. You see where I’m getting at, we need the knowledge of Imams and the madhabs to stick to the sunnah. Without them you have a broken chain. Just like ahadith, without one or two sahaba in the chain, you have a broken chain. Tradition must carry on.
And it’s not easy to learn the arabic of the Quran and write/read/understand the complexity of the language, not to mention in just a few months. I know students of deen who are becoming Alims, maybe you know some too, it’s not something which can be learned part time.
Brother, let’s not equate the sunnah as garment shop. 
Maybe a different example… let’s use streams and river..? I’ve heard this example before.. 4 Imams= 4 streams leading to the 1 river = Sunnah of Prophet sallallhu alayhi wasallam and that river leading us to the Sea = Allah (SWT).
Now can you pick and choose which stream to travel on? Of course you can but only at the start because you can’t jump stream to stream can you? There are matters in madhab, which are particular, when we pick and chose, we are doing it for our own pleasure not for the pleasure of Allah by following the sunnah.
Yes that is exactly why the need of madhabs. For example (brothers correct me if im forgetting the names).. Umar (RA) said if a man ejaculates in the bedroom of his wife then ghusl is not needed, but Abu Bakr(RA), Uthman (RA) and Ali (RA) said NO. So Umar(RA)'s opinion was outright rejected by all including the 4 Imams. Now let’s say a layman picks up Buhkari sharif and finds this hadith, what do you think he’ll do?
A hadith about those give rulings based on their limited or no knowledge (the knowledge without any understanding of the the religion)
“Whoever is given a legal opinion (fatwa) without knowledge, his sin is but upon the person who gave him the opinion” (Abu Dawud, 3.321)
Today we say we can understand our own Islam by reading the Quran. But most of us only read the translation of the Quran, and you know better than me that these translations are just translations, far from perfect.
This is one famous incident when a man asked Imam Ahmad(R) when is a man a scholar?:
“When a man has memorized 100,000 hadiths, is he a scholar of Sacred Law, a faqih?” And he said, “No.” The man asked, “200,000 then?” And he said, “No.” The man asked, “Then 300,000?” And he said, “No.” The man asked, “400,000?” And Ahmad gestured with his hand to signify “about that many” (Ibn al-Qayyim).
This only gives us an idea of how much knowledge is required…
Same way unless we are planning to study deen seriously full time then I guess we could start deriving rulings… (though the serious students will be scared to death because trust me the knowledge these students (now scholars) attain, it only gives them assurance that following the great imams is where it’s safe and not inventing something new..)
With all due respect, I think the Salafis have done a lot of damage to this ummah by introducing this fitna of “picking and choosing”.. in the last century or so. Ask the great scholars, they’ll tell you how it was like for their teachers and their teachers … it was rare to find salafis like we do today (the likes of Zakir Naik et al).. IMO the saying “Petro Dollars at work” is true say..! All these fly to Saudi for their education, I wonder why…