I have no idea what you "can take that to mean." I cannot recall ever advising somebody to take out loans that they cannot afford. Perhaps you can run a search through my posts and attempt to point out where I ever have?
I have always attempted to give an honest, balanced and realistic appraisal of the market and how it has both evolved and what future direction it is likely to take. I don't think I pull my punches, or sugarcoat the reality in any way.
I talk about what I know about. If you don't like it, then you don't like it. If you disagree then fine. These programmes are an evolution of similar programmes that have been in existence for decades. The financing and composition of them has also evolved over the same period. For some people coming to these forums, they want information based on what is happening in the real world, not necessarily someones informed or ill informed opinion.
I see people who have used these courses to their advantage and betterment and it is entirely right to point that out. That there are enormous risks and pitfalls as well as some extremely poor companies out there, is something that I try and point out as often as possible and within the context of the particular reply. Nevertheless there are people and companies who utilise these programmes to good effect and with good results. They are undoubtably the lucky ones, in this enormous "pyramid of shattered dreams," but the reality is that they exist. I have given examples of where this has been the case and continues to be the case.
For people realistically looking for a fast track career with a couple of hundred hours (as so many are here,) the options are extremely limited. They have always been extremely limited. However there are options out there for the few who might qualify for them by virtue of ability, financial resource, and luck.
If a 20 year old wannabe asked me privately what I thought was the best way of getting an airline career these days was, I would tell them the same as I post on here. That is my experience of the market in the last 15 years. I have seen many people succesfully come through these programmes. That the path to a career in aviation is littered with bodies, is something that I have repeated time and time again, so I don't think I do anything to encourage or paint an unrealistic picture of the landscape.
So no, I am not kidding, and no I don't "get a piece of the cake" either. But I do work in a company where over a quarter of the pilot workforce are now graduates of these programmes and a company that continues to recruit from all of the traditional sources in roughly equal measure. I am not a graduate of this type of training, but I might be if I could turn the clock back 35 years. Not one penny of my annual income is dependent on these programmes or the FTO's involved in conducting them, nor is it ever likely to be.
Where you have good partners the programmes work well. Much of the sensible criticism being levelled, is about the partner airlines more than it is the programmes, the FTO's, or the young candidates. Where this combination exists, it shouldn't be too difficult to understand why a well structured cadet programme as part of a balanced recruitment drive is well defended. I make no apologies for that. For those companies where volume has perhaps smothered most of the vestiges of quality and investment, it isn't difficult to also see the usual daily rants (which may well be justified) emerging, blaming everyone and everything for their woes. Of course that is why you read so much of what you do read. It certainly isn't too hard to figure out.