Based on the premise that you pay more the closer to the front of the aircraft you sit, BA and L£ have simply turned the flightdeck into an enhanced premium product - on one side of the cockpit door loyalty is rewarded by Avios and Executive Club seniority and on the other a secure job, salary and benefits etc. Seriously though, I often see reference made to the old Sponsored Pilot Training Scheme and more recent FPP; both remnants of a once nationalised flag carrier and the latter created by those in the airline who were by and large products of selected and sponsored training in a market where that was acceptable and/or expected. They recognised the quality, professionalism, enthusiasm and loyalty borne out of those schemes over many years. Is this the world we live in today? I ask because if you look at how training is conducted for other EU and Western operators, it is almost without exception purely retail.
Personally I think it's a pity but sadly, airline CEO's tend to consider their pilot workforce as nothing more than a resource and as long as ATO's are able to 'sell' them a solution to maintain this resource, a solution that profits all parties (and it will as believe me, there will be no shortage of young entitled and wealthy (or with access to finance) applicants for this enterprise who will feel they have achieved 'instastatus' in a BA uniform sitting in the right hand seat of an A320), there will be no return to costly financial assistance or incentivisation in favour of the most suitable candidates.