I am sure there are a great many people who have given up for one reason or another. This is a career path that is littered with bodies. I have been saying this (on these forums) for the last 14 years, and so have a great many others. There is nothing clever about the statement, it is a simple, obvious, and consistent observation.
Whilst I understand your position, one thing I am a little surprised by, is the suggestion that you "were duped." By whom?
For years and years and years, decades, and as long as this website has been in existence, and much longer, people have been warning of the risks inherent with relying on flight training as a succesful career path. Usually the only "duping" is entirely self inflicted. The resources are readily available to anybody who wants to avail themselves of them. This industry (like many industries) is a giant pyramid. Everybody is looking at the pinnacle but few are likely to get there. Even the "I am prepared to do that" jobs, are at a level that is well out of reach for many.
It is rather like saying you need an actors equity card to be a succesful actor. Having one may be a necessity, but it does absolutely nothing to ensure the desired result. Likewise with flight training. Every succesful placement requires the license, but the licence does nothing to ensure a successful placement. Something that seems woefully lost on a huge segment of the relevant populace.
Even at the pinnacle of this pyramid, there are placements that range from good, to not enough to survive on. Having a fall back plan, is therefore not only essential, it is in itself inadequate. Most people should have a number of fall back positions, because they quite simply, will need them!
Many of the requirements for obtaining a professional pilots licence have become much easier over the last decade. However the requirements for a succesful career placement have become much more difficult. It therefore doesn't take much imagination to understand that there is now a massive oversupply of hopeful wannabes, many of whom on sheer weight of numbers (ignoring everything else,) stand very little chance of success. In other words the giant pyramid has got much, much bigger, but the pinnacle of it is simply higher up, and further away.
People seem to labour under an illusion that it is the obligation of flight training organisations to dissuade wanabees, and paint a gloomy picture. That is simply ludicrous and naive. The survival of any business depends on profit, and that profit will only come by selling a product. You can sell flight training. You can sell a Ferrari. You cannot sell a dream, because it has no tangibility. You hope that the potential buyer will use that excuse or reason for buying your product if nothing else will.
If you do give up, then don't feel too bad about it. People make worse mistakes in life and recover. That said, there are jobs out there, and people are still getting them. I have seen a lot of good top tier vacancies filled in the last 18 months by people who did research carefully and got lucky. I have also seen vacancies filled at all of the levels from the pinnacle down through the layers. These vacancies were filled by people who obviously didn't give up. who worked hard, and also got lucky.
The pyramid may be very large these days, but it has always been a pyramid with very slippery sides.