Myself, I would undoubtedly do it again. I love flying and have always found it a worthwhile career path, even if it involves a lot of personal sacrifice and compromise with many things in life. I guess that you need to have an inclination towards it to genuinely enjoy it. Just like most wannabe doctors or teachers don't choose their professions because they're the best paid, most straightforward or anything like that. It's just what they want to be doing for a living because they find it more meaningful and satisfying to themselves than anything else.
I don't regret the path I chose, which effectively makes flying my second career. I'm also a qualified engineer, holding a decent degree and relevant industrial experience. I knowingly chose to do it that way back in the day, even though it delayed the flying by a couple of years, because I wanted to have a plan B and also a somewhat broader professional development. Even now, some years into it, I'm thinking of signing up for some form of part-time postgraduate study in finance or asset management for the sake of becoming better positioned for airline management roles.
Would I recommend a similar approach to new entrants? Totally yes. Please, please, don't get frustrated by the fact that someone is already a Captain by the age you're just starting your FO line training because he went into flight school straight out of high school. Your career is a 40-odd-year-long marathon. You will have enough time to enjoy flying and a couple of years won't make that much difference to your long-term progression. But those years, spent working on something else, can give you a lot of advantage in many ways. It's not just the hugely important plan B. Having a broad knowledge base and a well-rounded personality can open up many career doors that can be combined with flying. The vast majority of airline post holders I know have some significant background in other fields, be it maintenance, finance, management, corporate security, IT or whatever. Moreover, it will give you so much more to talk about in that first airline interview! So, don't take the present climate as the death knell of your dreams and goals. Use the time to recovery wisely and you'll end up in a much better position long-term.