It's understandable that people don't want to face up to the reality, but ultimately it comes down to supply and demand. Airlines could literally offer any salary they choose to at the moment and there will be a huge excess of applications. £70k for a captain would seem about right as it's about the same as tube drivers make when overtime is taken into account.
As I previously posted, the goal is the minimum acceptable level of safety for the lowest possible cost. Highly restrictive SOPs and very reliable aircraft that are relatively straight forward to operate the vast majority of the time mean that there is no need to pay top whack for highly experienced people, when the job can be done to the minimum regulatory standard by far less experienced and cheaper pilots. It's simply a bonus for the airlines that for the foreseeable future they'll be able to get the highly experienced people for the same cost as the newbies.