JTR,
The freighter bashing has always been easy to deal with because it said more about the person doing the bashing than the issues; as you say it was forced upon us all. Which I would say has parallels to the ban.
What bewilders me is the number of junior guys who are oblivious to how the Seniority/Freighter/Pax blend is working. Whilst it may be of no interest to them, their contempories are moving to and very soon back from the freighter. Further, I think the freighters are now up to 12 aircraft, which represents a large chunk of opportunity within the company.
The first Freighter captain returning is on a Man base. The first tranche were mostly European based on pax fleet and picked up a European base on the classic. I think there is only 1 Syd based Capt.
The HK$ value is probably not relevant because who considers their life in terms of maximising their receipt of HK$; if you did you wouldn't be a pilot!! That said, being 2-3 increments ahead in the Capt. pay stakes for the next 15 years is not insignificant. Basings and aircraft type were big considerations.
The amazing thing about this thread is the number of guys who fell for old Horse Sh!t; I would say they were gullible, however I can't as the word gullible doesn't appear in any English dictionary.