Metro 301, I agree with much of your "2 cents worth" and in the past much of what you say was and still maybe true but possibly not so anymore?
Saudia is now changing.
Advice and expertise to the DG and Senior Saudia Management at Saudia, on the strategy how to "Transform, Grow & Improve" the airline is no longer coming from Saudi management. It is coming from an ever increasing group of newly employed expat senior airline managers, as well as from a group of well proven aviation and highly regarded consultants(nearly all British). These consultants advise the DG directly and have been doing so for more than a year. This means the DG and senior Saudia management know ALL the true problems within the airline and especially Flight Operations.
These expat advisors and managers know the true situation in ALL the airline's many departments, including Flight Opeartions-that is why there has been in change in VP Flight Operations & GM Flight Operations in the last two months. The same people also know that Flight Operations will have to rely on expat flight crew to help with expansion-certainly over the next five year period. These people certainly do not want the current expat pilots to leave.
In the past it may have been true that the "squeaky wheel got the hammer rather than the oil" but I do not think that is so now.
Furthermore, the Saudi national pilots as well, as our Egyptian colleagues amongst us, have a mechanism for voicing their "collective complaints". I see know reason why the other expat pilot groups should not utilize a similar mechanism.