Nopes, to think those facts mean anything close to pilot shortage is a overly simplistic understanding of facts.
First of all the Chinese weren’t looking for f/o’s or career pilots. They were mostly looking for quick skippers to accomodate their over inflated aviation sector.
That money was needed because no sane 40-50-60 yr old westerner would gladly move to a communist nation to live in a box and be subjected to communist rule. So they needed incentives. That’s it, nothing else.
As for EK the same counts as above, remember it’s a mega expensive muslim city in the desert, people in general do not want to go live there. Those other little feeder carriers you speak of lost many pilots and had crappy contracts. Their lack of pilots was not due to a shortage but due to bad contracts.
Next time you even think about “shortage of pilots” ask yourself why BA, KLM, LUFTI, AA, CX, AF or Qantas never had planes on the ground due to pilot shortage. There has never been nor will there EVER be a shortage of pilots but there will always be a shortage of good contracts.
As for the future of aviation, nobody knows really. It’s just a guess and every decision is a bet. 2024 is so far away and anything can happen,one thing is for sure the world will have too many pilot by then as well.