The bottom line is, the cathay pilot job is firmly and permanently in the "temporary job" category now. If you wish to have a temporary job, then perhaps you might find some value in accepting employment with Cathay with a firm plan to leave cathay for a career job asap.
It is not a "career job".
If you expect it to be a creer job, you will be badly disappointed, years from now and will be scrambling to secure new employment elsewhere and start at the bottom once again. Remember, career progression at career jobs are all firmly based on seniority first, with other requirements considered after. Temporary jobs are not. Cathay has officially announced to its pilots that progression will no longer be based on seniority, since a couple of years ago. Not even lip service when it comes to longevity and seniority anymore.
Know what you're faced with and decide accordingly.
However even this comes with its own risks. 25 years ago I took an airline pilot job entirely considering it as a temporary job with a plan to use it as a stepping stone for a much better job. My plan was to leave in one year. Circumstances caused a severe downturn in the airline industry and I got stuck at that rubbish job for 8 years. So beware. If you're with cathay and they gut your pay and compensation package (as they did a few years ago), you're financial situation will be in dire straits and you may very well collapse in time under the costs of living in Hong Kong.
Also, to say that those of us who have left don't know how it is now etc... is very disengenious. We all have many dear friends on various nationalities still at cathay. Dear friends we will never lose touch with. Rest assured we hear every little detail of exactly how it is there on a regular basis. What we are saying, our reflections of cathay, are widely shared among those who are still stuck there and would escape to a better job immediately if they could.