I know a lot of guys at EK that are happy, they also realize that there is nowhere else to go, so they don't dwell on the negative aspects of the job.
No matter where you work, you will find fault with something.
I still think that Emirates or Etihad are good viable options. At least there you get given a villa to live in. ALL of your salary is yours to spend, not like in HKG where more than half of your salary goes to the tax man and the landlord! The rest goes to the 3 Tycoon families that run HKG.
I would also like to point out that the current EK recruitment limits is what Cathay was getting 15 years ago. The fact that we can only attract zero hour cadets or 250 hour "Experienced " SO's, it still goes to show that they can attract a good candidate , where CX cannot!