they are instead giving away citizenship as a bonus rather than increasing or improving their package
Qantas link are not in a position to give anyone citizenship, that would be the Australian Government. Now I have not checked the fine print but usually at the end of the visa period the person has to leave, not always as they can apply for
PR. Again that is not citizenship.
The other point is how many do they really think they can get? The US is desperate for pilots and pay is increasing quickly. Maybe a few Europeans who want to try living in a warmer country and no doubt a handful of South Africans happy to GTFO. I believe that Australian airlines are kidding themselves if they think that there is a huge pool of pilots overseas who are just waiting for the chance to move to a now quite expensive Australia. We shall see.
How do their cadets get their ATPL unlocked
We do not have "locked" or "frozen" ATPL in Australia.