Well they always have been like winning lotto, that is what the staff at BAe used to remind their QF cadets of when they ran the program back in the 90s. Also BTW the QF program was also entirely self funded, and again no guarantee of a job.
Look at it this way a Jetstar cadets will likely earn about $ 1.7 million in their first ten years employment
The same guy who didn't want to take the "huge risk" of a cadetship will earn likely about $400 K in their first ten years , likely punctuated by at least 25% of time spent unemployed, underemployed, working as a "slave" in at a GA flying school where you will be expected to work FT at a flying school , to be paid only for your two or three hours flying a week.
Doing laps of Australia on your credit card , and expected to be a "hang around" in a town for months before being considered for a job. In the meantime your high school buds have graduated Uni , in stable city jobs , buying houses, taking OS holidays.
So if you can actually stick this out for ten years , yes come on down winner, you now actually have the right to submit an application to Jetstar - you will need about 4000 tt to be competitive. But wait Oz is now feeling the GFC wash onto our shores , albeit a few years after, and there are now less than 100 direct entry spots per year.
Your application is now in the pile with a couple of thousand other turboprop dreamers, who are almost all likely to spend their entire careers turboprop dreaming.
But wait - you are lucky and actually pull it off. You feel so proud of yourself in your new Jetstar uniform earning your initial $90K base per year. But you bump into your old HS mate , you know the one who did the cadetship, actually had the discipline to prepare properly, had two cracks before he got it instead of enrolling in the first "You will have a jet job within five years - worst case" flying school he spotted on the drome. He is now a widebody Capt earning a base of three times your salary.
Go for GA maaateee - you will be such a winner.