Good post.
You said "Maybe it's just me being a miserable bastard," and when I saw the title of the thread, that's what I thought too. But your post doesn't just outline the negative, it gives good alternative solutions, which are also the same conclusions I came to when I first started looking into getting the ATPL(f).
I'd also add that, if you already have a job in another industry, you should do whatever you can to keep that job while training, and until you get your first flying job. We all love flying, and we'd all love to be able to do it every day and get paid for it. But until we get to that point, we've all (well, most of us anyway) got bills to pay, and that has to take priority.
FFF
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