V1
Possible answers.
A) BA are doing it specifically to annoy people such as yourself.
B) BA has noticed that it is perfectly possible, given enough cash, for a total cretin to get him/herself a fATPL. They have thus decided to take on cadets that they have filtered before any training and then follow them through the training pipeline to ensure suitability. This fits their policy of taking on proven pilots from other airlines, and ex military pilots who at least have at the begining passed a very stringent selection proceedure unlike self improvers.
This policy obviously means that BA will miss out on good guys first time round, but they seem more concerned not to get any chimps, than miss out on stars.
This does not mean BA recruiting is bad for the rest of us. Everyone working for them is one less to compete with for that first Airline job, and you can always try for them as a DEP later in your career.