Exactly the conclusion I reached a while back.
A small example at my company was the huge fuss created when crew food amount and quality was reduced unilaterally. BALPA talked tough, ranted and raged that it was breech of contract, a reduction in our terms and conditions etc.
Six months of silence later they were forced to eat their words when learned council informed them that there was no contractual agreement regarding amount and quality, so they blamed it on the previous CC!
When I resigned from BALPA a year ago, they sent me a standard scare tactics letter about how exposed I'd be without their legal "protection". As far as I could work out it was nothing of the sort, and as previous contributors have stated, BALPA cherry-pick who they will or won't represent, based on either internal company politics or a cast iron case in their favour.
Correct me if I'm wrong but according to their accounts, BALPA spent £165000 in legal representation last year. Peanuts, considering the size of the membership.
Where does the money go?