They are not taking a pay cut. The money was never there and they base their decision to join on whats available at the time of joining. I'd have loved to be on the APS pension scheme and have retired at 50. It wasn't available when I joined. That's tough $hit. Life isn't fair. Your logic is flawed. Don't be surprised by the response from BA pilots, it's what you are going to get throughout the company because people are realists. They are not going to take a whopping pay cut to eke out the 24 point pay scale just a little bit longer. The system was set up for an era when people did 30 years at BA then retired. Now people can do 45 years at BA. No point kicking the can down the road. Change is inevitable.
I agree with most things you post, but do please bear in mind those of us who have committed to BA, have resigned from jobs, are investing £84k plus in the FPP on the basis of the payscales as we understood them, only to be joining in 2013/2014 on something different.
It is galling, though understandable