Expat contracts are, at least officially, temporary positions to fill a void until a local is qualified to do it. Most of the airlines do pay for the training of their local pilots.

They pretty much pay for your training anyways. Once you're hired as an expat the amount of training you'll go through is probably far more than would be required to get a type rating back home. The type rating/time on type requirement is to either meet a government requirement to issue a work visa to a foreigner and/or get qualified people to fill those command positions.

Plenty of contracts are accepting other type ratings though. A couple of Japan jobs will accept type ratings on just about any commercial jet. Some of the Chinese ones will accept any Boeing type rating for a Boeing job or any Airbus type rating for an Airbus job. So it is easing a little bit. I doubt you'll see people being accepted with no type rating at all simply because there are plenty of locals with no type rating and the government would never issue you a work visa unless you have a skill or qualification that the locals don't have.