I assume by your use of the words "swallowed that tripe" you went for a cheaper option.
I was an airline industry MD before flight school so I did not "swallow" anything, I trained at Oxford and I am glad I did and I carefully considered many options. i made my decision not on money (as most are forced to) or sales pitches but on advice from a few serving Airline pilots and Airline recruiters.
Maybe there is not much difference in the quality of the leading schools and others we do still get the same licence but then some would say there isn't any difference between Ford and BMW cars they both get you from A to B, Kelloggs or Happy Shopper cornflakes, they're both food.
You get what you pay for and maybe some of those £1000's is for perceived reputation, I cannot compare but I don't go slating people for being "cheap skates for not going to Oxford or BAE"
Employers know the long term pedigree of these schools and can quantify the quality, they do increase the percentages in a bunch of 1000 CV's even if the training is comparable, which as I said, I cannot compare.
Ryanair have just taken a load of low hours pilots direct from Oxford only and are taking a lot more, but don't bother going direct, you will not get anywhere, you'll be deflected to apply through GEcat, FlyBe are going to only Oxford for low hours, GB will only look at top of the class from Oxford or BAE and no others.
These are a few examples, that can be bypassed wherever you trained if you know the right people