Not intending to add to the anxieties on the base, but the current cost argument in favour of bases is way overdone.
No new hire since mid 2008 has received expat housing. Over 2/3 of HK based pilots receive HKPA only. The cost differential between HK and the bases has been strongly converging for 12 years now, and is probably quite negligible.
ACMS, for a MEL based guy (or girl) to ‘be doing some flying’ requires a MEL-HKG sector to start, of which there are very few. And the aircraft has to get from HKG to MEL first. Hence why HK crew are doing it. And most of us HKG crew are doing little, if any flying either.