FWIW I read an article on this, same cover photo and all, about two years ago. Maybe more. The article stated that they were “in the final stages of testing before flight” and that the historic flight was imminent. If the “final stages before flight” to the actual flight has take over two years, I’m not too worried about it. This type of thing is coming, but I’m not losing sleep over it. Forward thinking my finances a bit more? Sure. But this may or may not happen in my career. There’s far more to this than the parlor trick and physical act of single pilot or pilotless ops. Slowtations have been single pilot certified since, what? The ‘80s?
People also talk about how we used to have five pilots in the cockpit. Now we’re down to two... We’ve never had five pilots. Five cockpit crew members, yes. But they weren’t pilots. Even the origins of the flight engineer are rooted in the history of aircraft mechanics. The fact that eventually the majority were certified pilots was by way of pilot unions. Not by operational need.
When single pilot ops do eventually happen, it will be a long phase in. How many decades did it take before all flight engineers no longer had a home? I would put money that anyone who is at their career destination right now, even as an FO, is safe. They might eventually find themselves a little lonely in the cockpit, but they will still have a job.