You would have to be desperate to accept the deal on offer. The initial outlay would take a long time to pay back with no certainty of a job at the end. Yes there are desperate pilots out there and EZY should have set out there store and told everyone what was on offer from the outset. At least then, they would be interviewing candidates who might stump up the money. The downside would be that desperation is not a good basis to recruit on.
I think that by saying "no" you have a good chance of getting a better deal. Your fellow candidates are probably at a stage in life when they cannot accept such a deal and the judgement questions asked on the computer testing probably means that most are not risk takers, willing to roll the dice. Some years ago Jet2 recruited and those that agreed to pay 25k for a TR did so and found themselves on a course with guys that refused to pay and had their rating paid for. How would that feel?