Buying a villa - be careful, there is massive oversupply of villas. Very jittery real estate market.
Dubai will never be your home, you are just passing through. You make of it what you will, but realise you won't be here much so better make sure the wife and kids can survive while you're away! It is hell if they hate the place!
The days of quick upgrades at EK are over, having plenty of time off to recover, to go to the beach clubs and generally live the expat lifestyle are well past.
EK has become a very different beast over the last 10 years - your get rostered flights with little or no regard to your preferences, the flights are organised so that it is very hard to swap anything, time off is a premium and you never really get enough days in a row off to do anything now, housing is in stalag meydan - 1 swimming pool between 1500 villas do the maths!! The recent Management changes have done little or nothing to address the issues - rostering is really effecting quality of life!
Ek / QR - I'd take any other option, but if you're forced then don't expect much at EK!