As I see it, the reasons people join/stay are from the following:
1. Pay and pension
2. Quality of the training
3. Diversity of employment and tours
4. Lifestyle, including leave, AT and sport
Point 1 is no longer as good relative to civilian employment as it used to be
Point 2 will certainly recruit people, but is not something that can be used to retain people
Point 3 has reduced with contractorisation, FTRS etc, and there is now little to retain people beyond (at best) 2 front lines tours followed by an instructional tour
Point 4 is still pretty good, provided that the culture on Stns encourages it. AT and sport in particular are what sets this job apart from a civilian one, and participation should be actively encouraged. Will it retain people though? Probably not beyond 2-3 tours.
The net result is that Service life will now hold an appeal of about 6-9 years, until most people have has their fun. I expect this is probably the intended effect of the recent changes anyway. The down-side will be that only the talentless remain until their 20 year point, while the best use the Services as a fun first career.
Finally, I should add that the mega-thrusters are not really included in the above, as they only have a desire for personal success.