LHR rain, with all due respect, I don't agree at all with your post.
As you put it, the right way to go about things is either retire from flying once you leave EK or else join another airline as a F/O as it is the right and morale thing to do. If however you join another airline as a DEC, that airline is not a good airline as it recruits DEC's. Does all this makes sense?
Sittingidly, if one has to base the decision on whether to join an airline by reading Pprune then he or she is a moron. People won't join EK because they hire DEC's is far fetched. Look around all the threads regarding pilot recruitment and you read all sorts of bull and rubbish one is amazed how planes are flying.