Your point is very well made Glueball. People will no doubt scoff at your comments and say that this scenario will never happen, but of course it more than likely will. As to when the first fully loaded unmanned airplane will take off, who knows, but as you have pointed out, the tecnology is not just in the near future, it's here and now.
For the present though, the pilots are here and they must fight what they believe they are worth.