Narrow runway.
I absolutely agree with you. Keep repeating those numbers until they don't sound quite so glib. These are mortgage numbers, and indeed a second mortgage is often how they are secured. If you are the primary borrower they will indeed affect your ability to obtain a home purchase mortgage.
However as ADM has said, they are the routes into the career at this level. There are no guarantees, and whether it is an acceptable gamble for an individual is a matter for the individual. For those that are successful, some should be able to discharge their obligation within 5 years. It might be a very frugal 5 years, but if you are in your early twenties, being in your mid/late twenties with those training debts discharged, 4000 airline hours under your belt, a possible command looming on the horizon, and the ability to whinge about more mundane things, probably isn't the worst prospect in the world.
I am not offering "advice" to get into debt. The path to success is littered with the bodies of those who didn't succeed. Make no mistake it is a very risky venture. However the comment or "advice" if you want to call it that, is to those who have already decided to commit. I have been saying this for a few years now, and this is what I believe ADM is also saying. If this is your ambition within a short term timescale, then this is your best opportunity of achieving that ambition.
I fly with the "product" every day. It is a good "product." The airlines like it.
Rail against it with pleasure, but it is the reality of an airline pilots cadet apprenticeship in the second decade of the 21st century. I can't see that changing in the next decade. All I do see is a growth in this sector of the market, and a streamlining of the system into MPL over the next few years.