I'm a product of the low hours industry, but i never paid anything for a rating,whatsoever… i just think that that's what brought the industry down (for us pilots)throughout the years, big companies in the ME and Asia, only asks for TR pilots with hours on type. and wannabe pilots specially in europe are going for this kind of thing for many many years..They start entering some airline in Europe like Easy or Ryanair(paying for the TR) get some hours and then they go straight to a wide body somewhere else...That's why companies wants only TR pilots with hours on type, because there's a whole bunch of pilots to supply them with this kind of scheme… Pilots like me are having a hard time trying to fly abroad because of this… If you don't have an Airbus or Boeing rating you're basically out of the market for the big companies in the ME and Asia..even if you fly an embraer,CRJ or other jet.. Companies completely lost interest on this kind of pilots because they gonna need a full type rating on the Boeing or Airbus wide body istead of a short course…
Here's just my 2 cents..