I would say there is several factors. There is no pilot shortage in Europe. Yes, there is finally some demand and the bigger airlines hire hundreds of new pilots each per year, but we are far away from a real shortage, and i doubt it will ever happen in Europe like it does in the USA, where ALPA did run a very successful campaign using the families of the fatalities in a sad accident to push through their agenda into law and creating a real shortage.
And yes, airlines do prefer cadets. Some of them from their "own" cadet programs where people are selected before training and trained using the airlines SOPs from day one, so they do get an entry level pay cadet with a complete training record from pedestrian to airline pilot. And if they cannot get enough of those, they prefer type rated direct entry pilots with time on type on the line. Only the third category is for those that are willing to pay for a type rating.
We do see a certain discrepancy between the EU and the UK at the moment, which was to be expected as the UK is now a closed off market. If you have an UK license and right to live and work there (don't see any visa sponsoring currently), then i would suggest to try there, as there seems to be quite a demand in some airlines that do not necessarily expect pilots to have the correct typerating.