I have no doubt throwing more money at RFDS pilots will help with retention but as I understand those that leave are often just looking for a better roster or natural career progression. Whilst the likes of Deja vu will try and convince you RFDS pilots are earning something akin to poverty line incomes, the reality is their incomes are generally well into a 6 figure amount, additionally there are also substantial tax benefits due to the charity status of RFDS.
In short RFDS pilots are considered to be in the top 10% of wage income earners in Australia. Whilst the likes of Barnaby Joyce may struggle on their 200k salaries most sensible people can sustain a good standard of living on a RFDS income.
As to the superlative skills of RFDS pilots, and yes they are pretty skilled pilots, some skilled pretty pilots too, but I doubt they can be called highly skilled bush pilots in the traditional sense, PNG pilots and similar are the true bush pilots and the accident rate reflects the difficulty of their work.
The challenging remote area flying disappeared along with NDB's, dead reckoning and piston engines, now its a world of FMS and glass cockpits and zero tolerance for risky scenarios. Airstrips are all surveyed, and generally of high standard for dirt strips, LSALT's are well promulgated and conservative and rigid SOP's rule the day/night. SPIFR in the likes of B200's and PC12's is not overly demanding compared to that of the piston engine era.
If management were to substantially increase pilot wages during the present relatively short lived high pilot demand times to retain pilots then they would wear this expense during the depressed times. Their trick is to see how long they can juggle with the present attrition rate until the cycle trends down, probably the easier tool to use is bolster the numbers the best they can, improve rosters and work/life balance and when things trend down tighten up the roster again. I don't suspect any of this is an easy process for management to deal with.