Sad tale.
I think the issue for those currently serving is for how long can we justify having retired senior officers taking up a flying post when so many front liners are being posted to ground tours.
Aren't you forgetting that these VR(T) posts are unpaid (hence the "V" in VR(T)?
Perhaps some more
junior officers in front line posts should be "retired", which would free them up to volunteer for an unpaid job such as AEF flying. But I doubt they would want to do that as they would prefer to continue to make a living.
In this financial climate I can't see that MOD would remove all unpaid VR(T) pilots from AEFs, in favour of making an AEF a full-time posting, like all other squadron jobs.
As I posted earlier, the rules for medicals have already been tightened and upper age limits have very recently been introduced for flying cadets.