Yet there is so much paradox in what you say.
FPP is a scheme that is conducted through Flight Training Organisations, one of which is CTC. In fact CTC through one of their own subsidary companies (APL) is charged with the administration of the sponsorship/bonding programme that underpins the scheme.
Those graduates who are now completing placements with at least one partner airline are being offered full time employment contracts which should yield around 4000+ hours of jet airliner experience over the next 5 years and a gross income (before tax) of over a quarter of a million pounds over the same period. The flying experience should (if all works out well) place those same graduates in a position to move to their respective left hand seat commands by the end of that same period.
Do you think those terms are lamentable?
FPP is a reasonable scheme, but it is a scheme arranged with one airline. There are other good schemes as well that use many of these same arrangements. You make the mistake of becoming too narrowly focused on only one part of the picture. To be fair, that part of the picture has been the biggest panorama over the last 5 years, because it is has been the only part of the picture where significant growth has occured. As the focus shifts to other partners, as well as new partners in those parts of the world earmarked for strong projected growth, so the dynamic is likely to shift.
Again I must make the point that there are no guarantees, and the risk element is substantial, but the idea that those realities are likely to change is frankly ludicrous. The airlines that have "better" ab-initio schemes, as well as those that are considering the creation and expansion of new ones, are not taking any serious risks, they are using the same established and recognised FTO's. Those organisations have geared up their infrastructure and investment to take advantage of future opportunities as and when they arise.
Everybody wants an upturn in the market. The reality is that as and when it comes, it will result in an expansion of the cadet training schemes that already exist and have prepared infrastructure to respond to that demand.
If you don't want it badly enough...(shrug)....somebody else will.