Nothing new about Direct Entry Captains. In companies that have started up or are going through a period of rapid expansion (such as EK,) it often proves impractical (or impossible) to promote from within the existing pilot contingent. Where union agreements exist, there is often provision made for this scenario.
In more established operations it is customary to promote from within the existing workforce. That promotion is dependant on the candidate reaching a certain level of overall experience and most importantly reaching a demonstrated level of performance.
Seniority within an airline provides the "queuing" mechanism for consideration for these promotions. In other words you take a number and wait your turn. "Your turn" doesn't imply success, but it does provide a fair mechanism for knowing when that opportunity will likely first arise.
Loyalty is poorly rewarded by allowing those who might feel they are "entitled" to decide that queues are not for them, and they should be allowed to simply jump ahead of those already waiting by virtue of their experience somewhere else. Such people might be catered to by the opportunities afforded by new start-ups or by rapidly expanding companies.
As far as "professions" go, some would argue that being a pilot isn't a "profession" in the strictest sense of the definition. The articled clerk and the junior doctor might themselves have remained such if promotion and advancement opportunities hadn't happened at their previous employers. In any event, these professions do place a far greater emphasis on what an individuals unique skillset and past performance bring to an employer in deciding their current worth. That worth is often negotiable and different from others within the firm. Pilots are simply rewarded by rank and grade and often loyalty (seniority) within their companies.
Those that decry loyalty or seniority based employment are often the first to jump up and down when what they see as a near term advantage later works against their personal interests. For example in the OP's argument he would no doubt be vexed to discover that his hoped for
move to Manchester was thwarted by his employer deciding to simply recruit somebody into that base rather than move him from
Guangzhou or wherever.
Being allowed to "queue jump" is all well and good provided nobody else is allowed to jump your own personal queue. Summed up in the OP's statement that:
the biggest reason I have for supporting DEC's is...me
As for the statement that:
I think an increasing number of people are starting to wake up to the fact that seniority is archaic and only serves as a device to enable management to keep terms and conditions down.
It is worth remembering that the architects of this new philosophy were the large
Lo-Cost carriers that expanded with such success throughout the last two decades. Terms & Conditions are a cost, and keeping those costs to a minimum was the very
raison d'être for these successful companies. You don't have to search far in this same forum to find those companies where dissatisfaction and angst is rife.