The cadet route to the RHS, regardless of whether it is via CTC or with FR, has stepped onto the front page because it is virtually the only route left open.
The people who have paid out for ATPL training, had until recently, the option of wading through a company holding pool for anything up to 2 years, or paying for a TR, and getting a job with easy or FR.
The folks who took the FR route shelled out 33K € for a 738 TR and at the end of line training were / are trousering around €3500 -€4000 a month: in 12 months while their peers earn minimum wage filling shelves at Tesco or handing out fries at Mickey D's the Zombie Army have earned enough to pay back the bulk of the TR.
Now if bmi or BA or FlyBe or Virgin or Thomson were hiring the folks would have a choice of whether to pay for a TR or accept a bond and join another company: the reality is that BA are not taking on cadets ( and when they do joined up writing skills are higher up the priority scale than flying ability ) nor are bmi and Virgin only take experienced FOs. With FlyBe you can cut your teeth on the Dash but how many people do they need and will it reduce your marketability in the future if you go down that route?
FR and easy want cadets not simply becasue in the short term they are cheaper but because they are a blank canvas: they don't have to "unlearn" another set of SOPs nor do they bring another culture to the company. Equally, hiring cadets spreads the demograph and facilitates career progression in an expanding organistion for SFOs to move to the LHS.
Finally, it is the choice of the airline management who they employ: it's their trainset.