Well perhaps 'free ride' is a relative thing but having your flying training entirely financed from scratch to the right hand seat of an airliner strikes me as a 'free ride'. I haven't questioned the calibre of candidates they choose nor the work that they put in to complete the course but once accepted if they meet the grade they do walk into a job at the top echelon of the industry.
As for others on local COS for differing reasons... These are the ones that 'signed up', eyes wide open, that I referred to earlier. If you sell your soul to the devil to jump the queue how do you expect to get it back years later when you do have extensive experience? CX/KA let you in with less experience than the normal entrant. That gave you a number of years, in some cases, head start accruing jet time on still good money which now allows you to look elsewhere to wherever the highest bidder resides should you not be happy with the status quo, financially speaking.
It basically comes down to demand and supply.