Interesting post, Few Cloudy...
You hit the nail on the head with much of what you write, but does this mean, for example, that you and your colleagues regard the loss of crew food as a foregone conclusion?
Sorry, but I regard my employer's duty as extending to looking after me during long and difficult days at work, and good food and drink is the bare minimum. If my employer didn't do that, I would understand that they held me in such low regard that I really would not want to work for them any more, especially if the crew food were withdrawn in a manner which is supposed to put more money in the pilots' pockets, but in fact changes nothing about the company's outgoings and simple involves a tax fiddle.
Also, I have not and would not travel on an airline as a passenger if I knew the crew were not being fed. Effective functioning as a crew member relies upon many things, one of the most crucial is proper sustenance. Do you trust your most junior, deepest in debt, FO or cabin crew member to feed him/herself properly in difficult circumstances? Remember, with your FOs, it is often the desire to be just where he/she is that is the cause of the debt... Expert legal advice is with me on this one (European Law and the Duty of Care).
Remember, the Employer giveth and the Taxman taketh away, pretty much at his whim.