I think it a little naive to expect management to shovel out a huge 'fix all' payrise...that has never happened in the history of industry let alone the aviation industry...as much as it would be nice to see it just won't happen.
What it does do is signal that recognition exists of a problem...if this payrise doesn't solve the problem you'll see another...if it does you won't.
Any manager worth the title will only ever increase T&Cs incrementally until he reaches a point that crews his aeroplanes.
It should be obvious that we have passed the bottom of the sine curve in the last year or so and T&Cs are heading back up again at long last after a good 10 years when that has not been the case.
Where I work we got a substantial payrise last year and the consensus is we will still be scratching to crew the fleet expansions..inevitably if that happens we will get another little payrise and another until we do crew the fleet appropriately.
Every mate I have scattered around the widebody fleets of Asia and the ME says the same thing...they aren't gonna be able to crew the fleet expansions planned for the next year or three.
My, and their attitude is "great!!" Failing a economic downturn the news is all good...relax and enjoy the ride!
Rather than slagging off the payrise as too little, too late why not just accept it graciously and look forward to the next one...but in a realistic fashion.