Operators and TRTOs will all say that safety is never compromised even with a pay as you fly pilot.
At the end of the day, if FO Bloggs has £30k spare, he can opt to obtain a type rating of his choice. At the end, he still needs to pass the required skills test and obtain satsifactory reports from the TRI. No amount of money (not yet at least!!) will make an unsafe pilot pass these hoops.
So on Day 1 of his line training, we have FO Bloggs who has self sponsored his TR and FO Speakin who has received his TR from a bonded airline scheme.
Both have the same hoops to pass once again and positive progress must be made each flight. Passengers on their flights will not know who is actually flying as equal standards will have been instilled at the training stage.
Although I may agree that the Self sponsored TR route is causing T&Cs to fall, the media will not have any leg to stand on. (Unless of course the financial burden is shown to affect performance).
We should not sideline these pilots who follow these routes. Potentially this may increase conflict within the flightdeck environment between pilots.