The price is absolutely outrageous, but playing devil's advocate let's look at it from a longer term point of view:
They get an A320 type rating, which gives them a much better chance of earning a living than many other TRs AND it puts them right at the front of the queue when, let's say, BA start recruiting. Whereas the likes of me in my turboprop get left to the end when employers have ran out of type rated guys. Is it really that surprising that they want to buy their way up the queue? I'm sure many people on here would do exactly the same thing if they were making these decisions again.