I have no issue with traditional cadetships per-se, nor do I believe in GA for GA's sake; But for anyone to justify a specious self funded cadetship as being their only option conveys an image of lazyness and naivety.
I've met lots of self funded cadets over the years in a few different countries and on a few different aircraft types. Every one of them to a tee thought they'd found a genious method of climbing that slippery pole faster than the the sucker who started in GA. Every one of them had a master plan to get some quick time and bugger off to greener pastures. Quite a few ended up unemployed for a number of reasons (economic downturn, company restructure, political expedience, pissed off the wrong guy) And every one of those to a tee discovered the unempoyability that comes with that awesome endorsement that has to be paid off, low TT and no Command time. A few reconciled themselves to a career in the right hand seat. I recall gaining a command over one such individual and I'll never forget the look on the guys face after the relevant management pilot explained to him (slowly) that the company had neither the spare resources (Training Captain) nor the inclination at that time to give him the required ICUS. Bitter? you bet. But he had nowhere to go. He'd screwed himself with a greasy pole cadetship.