Not quite
They accepted the position for MORE money than they had been making previously (as F-scale or even based B-scale FOs), not to mention the advantage of starting on CN payscale increment 1 far earlier; a no-brainer really, if they wanted to stay on a base and didn't plan to take advantage of HKG housing.
Much as you presumably accepted a B-scale (or F-scale if you joined as a DEFO) because it was better than whatever you had previously, even if this way you were (from the point of view of your A-scale predecessors) accepting "crap conditions and helped drag it down for all of us".
The point is that the company has successfully played this game for years: the senior guys on "superior" conditions let it happen due to I'm-all-right-Jackitis, then when a few years later they find themselves in a minority they take it out on their junior colleagues for accepting "crap conditions and helping drag it down for all of us", instead of realizing that they have been outfoxed by management again.
Newsflash: it's happening again with housing. So, are we going to sit here and throw cr@p at each other or are we going to try and stop lower conditions being offered to junior crew this time?
Like you say, it's not rocket science, but I'm not holding my breath.