I now have a few more minutes to give you a more in depth answer.
Congratulations on getting the job that so many seem to want!
You asked an honest question and I believe you have had honest answers. It certainly is not what it was and the Middle East knows that it can pick and choose from many less successful regions around the world, hence no real incentive to raise the salaries by much.
I am not going to repeat what has been said on the public boards, but there is a wealth of information out there and very few, in fact hardly anyone, has anything positive to say. But if you are starving and out of work and prepared to work to the legal limits for a salary that is not much more than anywhere else pays, then that is your choice.
Time period to command is variable, there are now so many DECs that the current FOs are being pushed further behind and the wait is getting longer. Most of us in the LHS are only in our late thirty's / early forty's so beware if you are coming here for a quick command!
The whole of Dubai is expanding at an unsustainable rate, something will have to give and the airline's expansion will be slowed. That will push the wait to transfer seats back further.
Personally I have nothing at all to whinge about really. I have made money here, I fly a nice new shiny jet, I have a nice car and the company give me a house to live in and overall I am happy. But, the place is not my home and never will be. The management culture is shocking with no concern at all for the people. There is no union and never will be and the management, even those fully protected by unions in their own previous lives, exploit this and it has even been mentioned by them that they can do things the way they do because they can.
If I had my time again I would not have left my home country to chase a bit of cash, in fact I probably feel no better than the average street girl here when I actually do a bit of soul searching; so dig deep inside and ask yourself why you would ever want to come here?
After a while the planes all blur into one, destinations become nothing more than recovery centres before the next flight and time off is increasingly more valuable. I for one will never give up a day off to fly no matter how much they offer, I simply value my time off more than the company do.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!