I don't think anyone will be surprised by that. It is a popular job to do. The basic salary is not much different to post 97 starting salary, it's the whole package that is so different.
Even when I joined BA 22 years ago I took a drop in my basic coming from another airline but my take home pay was ok because of O/T and allowances etc.
I have been told that BA want a churn rate of 15% and they have set the total package low in order to achieve that. I think the churn rate will be even higher from the amount of pm's I receive from new joiners that feel very let down by the reality of their rosters and their take home pay so far.
Time will tell if this is a sensible policy but what you can be sure of, is that there will always be a never ending supply of people wanting to be cabin crew because it's every little girls dream, well it was mine!