I agree with you DP, there are some interesting posts coming out. It can only be a good thing that people are being honest.
FlyingG you say that the romanticism of flying will not go away and I agree with you, but I've a question to ask that may ruffle a few feathers:
How many people out there on this forum are seeing training for a CPL/IR as a substitute for not securing fastjet training with the RAF? I know they all have 2 wings and go up and down pretty much the same way, but the other similarities are few and far between. I know there a lot of ex-mil pilots now flying commercially who frequent this website so they are prefectly placed to kick me into touch. But my family has had 2 ex fastjet pilots move into commercial flying. And the both hated it.
My point here is that whilst they both did chase their dream to hare down a Welsh Valley at X00knts and then stop on a sixpence (yes, both Harrier pilots) they saw commercial flying in the airlines as a meal ticket. Nothing more. It was not chasing a dream. There people on this site who liken comm' training to some sort of Top Gun programme, but I think you are all going to be disappointed. People have to realistic as to what this career means. It is as much about a certain lifestyle than about the actual job of flying. The continuing motivating forces for many are the money, relative security, not pushing paper around a desk and not having to commute into town on the 0720 service.
As my family members say, pushing the envelope and tolerances of a civil a/c doesn't go down well with the businessman in 4c who promptly spills his coffee and gets clocked on in the head by a bottle of Drambuie.
All that said, if your dream is to steer a considerable piece of hardware through increasingly busy skies and ensure that pax don't notice the flying, then get in a nice car and head back to your home that is bigger than all your friends' who still have to live in London or the big cities, then this may well be your dream.