To me it makes sense that some airlines will want to make things easy for themselves, save money and minize risk in this way
Chocks you're right in that a few ill-informed and essentially lazy Chief pilots and Directors Flight Operations will take the integrated applicant route in the mistaken impression that they are minimizing the risk to their organisation - and, most definitely, to make things easy for themselves!
It is precisely because there is no difference between the modulated and integrated training schemes that schools like Oxford are desperately trying to introduce some differentiation through extra (yet unnecessary and bloody expensive) modules tacked on to their basic integrated courses. They hope that this will do two things: attract more well-funded students to their schools, and convince airline recruiters that their product is better than other schools' products.
The trouble is, the airlines won't pay for this stuff and you guys in general can't raise the money, so these integrated 'plus' courses are not yet that successful. One of the major factors in their failure to become more popular is the lack of any substantive evidence that their graduates are any more attractive to the industry than the vanilla integrated or modular chap. Oxford, in particular, seem particularly 'creative' in their claims for how many of their students they've found jobs for, and how they did it, so I'm loath to accept any claims for the validity of their APP course, for example.
A far better option for the airlines seems to be the CTC type setup where the financial risk is still essentially borne by the student, yet the airlines have considerable input on the qualification for, and the conduct and supervision of, the courses. These are called sponsorships, but they're basically enhanced integrated courses on HP! However, they're available only to the few, and the industry must continue to recruit on the open market - which is where you guys come in.
The bottom line is that there is no appreciable difference between an integrated and a modulated graduate. Most airlines appreciate this and are only interested in the fact that you have the licence, the medical, the requisite hours and are willing to earn a relative pittance while they try and turn you into a useful pilot.
Scroggs