Phil, we all support the idea, however the private messages are not being nasty, just realistic. They will not be 'unemployable', its just they will not walk into police and ambulance jobs. They will have to do what other civil pilots do, working their way up the ladder over years of 'ups and downs'.
Don't change your mind over the thank yous, actually thank them for telling you the truth. There are some thieving cynical people out there who will see pound signs. Luckily the majority are not like that, it just seems like the bad ones always seem to get involved.
Get the Douglas Bader spirit, never give up and you can prevail, just be realistic on the timeline.
PS. The quoted price for a CPL seems cheap if you include the IR.