Safety and cheapness ARE mutually exclusive.
And the airplane you are flying was supplied by the
lowest bidder.
Trying to compare a military instructor with an airline LTC is madness.
A point I did make but slightly less forcefully and with some amplification of the reasons why.
However, when the recruitment procedure does seem to focus on inexperience and the ability to pay, over and above the quality of cadet, then you are storing up problems for the future.
And easyjet will reap the harvest. Fortunately, Ryanair don't accept candidates on their ability to pay: the last group of cadets I was involved in training were excellent individuals and should make rapid progress to the LHS if they keep working with the same attitude. Additionally, judging by comments elsewhere about the number of sectors easy cadets get, 46, you may wish to note that FR sets the bar far higher at minimum 80.
The benefit of hiring a cadet is that you get a blank canvas: getting guys with X thousand hours to adapt to your SOPs is more intensive than starting from scratch.