Well, making that choice before handing over the cash is a lot more straightforward than making it afterwards, that is very true!
The permanent contracts with easy haven't been too awful considering we're <1000h experience in most cases - easy Swiss in particular have offered quite good deals indeed.
Nevertheless, meeting basic living costs during the initial 8 months with loan repayments to make is not easy (excuse the pun) unless you've got well-lined pockets, which, after paying for part of the type rating, practically none of us have.