I left Emirates as a line captain last year. The effective measure of salary is the amount you can save each month. We lived fairly simply in Dubai and saved around GBP7k pcm for 10 months of the year. The remaining 2 months 'savings' were spent on holidays. Of course, profit share (if any) added to that figure and Covid-19 pay cuts detracted from it. I don't think I could do that in UK on 140k pa gross. But, no pay rise in the years before Covid-19, the introduction of VAT, Covid-19 pay cuts all made Dubai a more and more expensive, diificult and frustrating place to live.
Market forces will always prevail and while we have thousands of highly experienced unemployed pilots looking for any flying position, terms and conditions will continue to head south. I have no idea when that situation will change other than to agree that it will be some time yet. I recently looked at a B777 Captain position in Africa. Eight weeks on, two weeks off, questionnable accommodation and a salary of US$3k pcm. No thank you, but there will be no shortage of applicants.