When proposing the original military accreditation system about 15 years ago, we assessed that the 'average' multi-engine pilot would hit the 2000TT/1500 as PIC in his/her mid-30s. After completing training, OCU, a co-pilot tour then a captain's tour, a QFI tour and perhaps back for an OCU instructor's tour, plus the inevitable holds and delays.
So they would have given a decent RoS and be set up for a second career if they wanted.
Although EASA assured the CAA that there would be no need to change the accreditation system, 22Gp had to know better
and threw away the original military accreditation system, replacing it with something virtually worthless. So now people are back to studying for civil qualifications as soon as they can; the boss of a certain ME squadron told me that he'd be one of them, even though he was supposed to encourage people to stay in.
They also ditched the excellence of the UAS scheme, so there is virtually nowhere for novice QFIs to learn their trade these days, as the absurdity of MFTS is being phased in.
I'd be really surprised to see many people sticking it for longer than their minimum RoS these days - particularly if banished to Jockistan for most of their time....
I left at the age of 52 after 35 years of service as I couldn't stand it any longer. The bucket of $hit was becoming vastly bigger than the bucket of fun and I'd heard that they were proposing to bugger about with the pension system. That was more than enough to convince me to pull the black-and-yellow; whilst serving PVR-porridge at Binnsworth, a desk officer came into the office and said that he wished he was in my position as he knew that things would only get worse...