While Lufthansa also has an outstanding AB Intio training program, some say equivalent to a military training, it’s still that.
Just training.
There’s something to be said about the time consuming traditional “working your way up the ladder” while you work and pay for it. Flying your way up the sh!ty and the gritty eliminates those that don’t have the fortitude to put up with blowing a jug in a light single, runaway prop on a light twin, arguing with a management stooge over weight, routes, fuel loads, crappy weather, unexpected ice, difficult crew members and passengers in small planes, etc …
It seems ordinary life events also naturally weed out those that don’t have the perserverence and emotional stability to overcome all the life issues that coincide (illness, divorce, grief, financial instability, losing a job, sex re-assignment, gender choice etc …) with the pursuit of this career, not exclusive to this career of course.
On a good day this is the best job to get and the hardest to keep.
Who’s to say Lubitz of Germanwings infamy might have called it a day, and dropped the “dream” had he not had the “go to the head of the line” benefit of Ab Initio?