Guv,
I agree that the figures that you quote do show flight ops as being excessively paid. However, as I stated in another thread (in reply to your good self as it happens), I don't believe that those figures are as accurate as they could be. In any case, BA has an ageing pilot workforce, a great many of whom are PP24ers soon to retire. The flight operations salary budget will fall sharply over the next few years.
On to your point about abolishing the seniority system and promoting on the basis of merit and ability. How, pray tell, do you intend to measure the merit and ability of a pilot workforce. The Economist recently suggested that you could measure the amount of fuel that pilots use or the quality of their landings. Any sane pilot (and the CAA) would be aghast at the first option while rolling around on the floor in hysterics at the second.
That said I find a lot of your other thoughts make compelling, if disconcerting, reading. I think it will take a long time for the six freedoms to disappear or for states to allow their flag carriers to go under, but I suspect that it would make good sense. Pardon me for being selfish if I say that I hope that my employer will be around to see it all happen.