I'm by no means an expert in this field and some people may come on here and tell me I'm wrong. However, having been to several FTO open days, bottled out of taking an intergrated course several years back, worked behind the counter for an FTO, worked for a couple of UK based airlines and made a large number of friends who fly everthing from airliners to instructing on Cessna's, I feel that I have a fairly well rounded opinion.
Having weighed everything up several times, I decided to get my PPL and enjoy it for a few years whilst carving out a non-flying career for myself in the airlines. I've managed to fly all over the UK on my PPL, flying in to places that some airline pilots would dream of being able to do. I've done my ATPL exams, and with no debt I now have enough money to embark on my CPL/IR whenever I feel the time is right. As it stands I'm also going down the path towards airline management, and so I have pretty good options around me.
I started from nothing just the same as those guys going out and taking a huge loan for an intergrated course. I guess I've just gone about it in a slightly different way and now I have the luxury of being able to change my mind or postpone my plans with no financial hardhsip to myself or any of my family.