It is more about particular airline and money rather than type (freight/pax) of operation. There are cargo airlines like Cargolux or LH Cargo who have a high requirements level and same time paying good money. And there are some operators (mostly regional turboprop) who want to pay lower than industry average thus in order to get pilots they have no other choise than to lower the requirements.
And because there are always young F/Os who want their first job and opportunity for the relatively fast promotion, such airlines will always exist. And as far as they can manage to achieve good level of flight safety and manage the situation properly, I don't see anything wrong with it.