I have the same issue with respect to evaluating the merits of arguments for and against pursuing a career in aviation.

I don't think that anyone likes what the career trajectory has morphed into over the course of the past few decades, but given the unavoidability of the regional "stepping-stone", it seems that the price of flying professionally now necessarily entails several years of hardship.

Provided one can survive the first couple of years (quite possibly more than just a couple), and is young enough to build a reservoir of experience, it seems as though it still trumps tying yourself to a desk purely for the sake of job security.