The MPL seems to be one of those things that will be difficult to get established and accepted. And the fact remains that most training captains are still extremely skeptical towards it. Posting on a site like this is one of the ways to gradually get this accepted as an alternative route to the right hand seat. As someone has already said, the margins for training providers are far greater for simulator training compared to actual flight time, so of course this is attractive to some training organizations.
It should be no surprise that students trained solely on a simulator (virtually) are in the short term better prepared for airline ops. The argument usually banded about is the lack of decision making and airmanship skills that result from the lack of proper airtime, and what happens when the systems fail?
For me the MPL will be the difference between 'true aviators' who started in a light aircraft and fly for the fun of it as well as the job, and despite big jets at work, will have a share is a light aircraft because they love it, and the others who see the airline pilot as a job bringing a reasonable status and salary. A sentimental view perhaps.
Another view that we can all sympathize with is, of course, that flying training is too expansive, and any way of getting to where you want to be with more in the bank at the end (or less of a loan) can not be bad.
What do you think?