You're absolutely right, Scroggs, & when people begin to realise that an airline pilot's job is exactly that: a job & not a hobby then maybe we can put a little bit of dignity back into avaition.
You have touched on the wider subject of not just funding TRs but what we are unfortunately happy to accept once we are flying commercially, which, I have to say, is very little. A guy who paid for his B737 rating in the spring with another TRTO started with FR is July. He has paid for just about everything, including having to fund his own CRM & SOP course with them!
We shouldn't just keep on about our friends at FR, though. Look now at the rotten offer from Flyjet. If you pay £22,000 for your 757 rating you may get a job with them. Until last month they were considering ditching their 757s altogether & going down the Airbus route, that was if they survived at all. And the alst comment came from none other than their then DOFO. How safe is your £22,000 if they were so insecure just two months ago? But they sure as hell will take your money.