Generally a reasonable statement BusyB, the said Captains need to be selected carefully.
In two companies where I spent a rather long time, watched DE Captains hired (expereinced on type), given a short differences course, foreshortened line training, and assigned to a regular line of flying in thirty days from commencement of employment.
Considerable fewer training Captain hours required in this exercise, rather than upgrade from within.
Having said this, a few of the 'bypassed' First Officers had a rather large chip on their shoulder about this, and would tend to complain bitterly to management about this process, and were promptly told by the fleet manager/chief pilot to button their lip least their upgrade be further delayed.
Suspect that EK management has made up their collective minds about DE Captains, and the guys there will have no other choice but to accept...or quit.
Of course, EK will have to pay competitive salaries now that world-wide aviation is starting a slow upturn. If they don't, they might find the DE Captain in-box rather less that half full.