If pilots want to be considered to be 'professionals' then they should be ready to accept DECs as readily as doctors at an hospital would accepts a 'direct entry' specialist from another hospital rather than insisting that he has to join at the bottom as a junior doctor, or lawyers accepting a 'direct entry' solicitor into their practice without insisting that he join at the bottom as an articled clerk. If pilots are going to insist on these outdated 'list' systems where everyone has to start at the bottom, then they are not 'professionals' but simply labourers.
The best motivator for employment conditions is a flexible and potentially mobile workforce. When the boss knows that he's got his labourers trapped in some magical 'list' he doesn't need to worry about the cost of losing them.
Comparing 'legacy carriers' (who can go bust, vide Pan Am, Swissair, Sabena, Malev, etc.) with other airlines is like comparing the public sector with the private sector in business ethic.