Really enjoyed that 757 Driver:
I also started late in aviation, at 34, for the same reasons you state: finances were not available after mortgage, wife and son expenses, plus all the rest we all have to face monthly. Plus, I was a "professional" musician.
The point is, I agree with you in that in the present easy-money, fast-food culture, it makes for a lot of todays young pilots getting typed and then seeking their fortune at finding a steady airline job, without vocation at all in some cases.
I was only able to gain experience by leaving home and spending 6 years flying in USA, getting home to europe, wife and son maybe twice a year. When I returned I was lucky and there was a demand for direct entry captains. I flew my butt off, transitioned from turbos to jets and in the course of company moves, even once paid for a 737 type to gaurantee a job after the towers 9/11.
I agree that with the current economic crash, vocational candidates will prevail as they will be guys who like you and me, fought and sacrificed to reach our place in cockpit, against many many odds, sort of like a trout fish swimming against the current whilst surrounded by hungry bears
