Some amazing thoughts coming out here and well, it's pretty obvious why companies are 1) doing these schemes and 2) getting away with it.
I can assure you 500 hours on a jet or even 500 just + hours on a jet will not make you stick out like a sore thumb. Companies will have no desire to give you a job. First point - the 500 hours that people are gaining in the UK are gained over the summer season and on some schemes there is no guarantee of getting 500 hours. So, at the end of the season you're not wanted anymore and therefore have no employment. The next season comes along, you apply for a full-time job but surprise surprise there is an other crop of your compatriots ready and willing to pay up leaving you with no job, your no longer operationally current (you may well pour more money into keeping your rating current in the sim) and the cycle begins.
How can you people not see what is happening. Airlines now see this as a way of making money and as a side effect, filling their summer/seasonal employment gap. What on this earth makes you think that once you have 500 hours on type the airlines are going to look at you over the near one thousand experienced guys out there in the market that are current on type, or the guys coming through the 'old school' way of turbo props etc and more importantly the guys fresh out of the schools that they can send through their current training schemes and utilize their fresh flying skills and, as has become normal, have them pay for their rating. To pick up the point of high hour requirements for airline entry can you not see all this is going to do is drive them higher as airlines will soon only want to hire high hour experienced Capts./TRI/TREs to sit beside the never ending flow of Line Training FO's sat in the right seat for their summer hols.
I don't unfortunately have the answer but guys please don't fool yourselves, be smart look at what's happening and make informed decisions don't be driven/blinded by the somewhat childish dream that lives inside us all.
PS guys my english/grammar teacher at school had a hand full with me but come on, in the age of computers - spell check. It shouldn't be this bad should it??