Airline aviation is of course a job, with it's own drawbacks.
Airline schedule is tradeoffs, and with some seniority you get to select many of those tradeoffs. For me it's been good for the kids since I'm home a lot more, and at times when most dads aren't, and don't bring work home with me. My alternative white collar career would have been in upper management, with lots of long days. There's still some hardship on the spouse, because sometimes you're gone for four days and she has to suck it up.
One of the bennies that's not well understood by outsiders if you can often create a large block of time off with days off by creative bidding. Maybe up to a month without even using vacation. Or you can focus on consistency, being home 3-6 days each week.
Again with some seniority it's not hard to bid multiple specific days off for family events.
Major holidays will take more seniority, but once you get to a major you can get comfortable and build seniority as an FO in a junior fleet if desired. Or you can chase money at the cost of staying junior.
My personal thumb rule is if I get 15 days off or more than I'm ahead of the game compared to white collar work. That's readily achievable with a little seniority.
Seniority progression is a key consideration. This will go much, much faster at certain junior airline bases, NYC is a prime example. If you're willing to relocate to such a base and drive to work you'll enjoy a vastly different career than somebody who lives in a very senior boutique domicile. Also driving to work (vice commuting by air is game changer.
Also money... as a senior major FO or major CA you'll be making quite a bit of money... $200-300k for FO, $400k+ for CA. That kind of money alone gets you some additional QOL.
The short answer is that airline aviation will probably be a better deal for, but there's some risk along the way, and your geographic flexibility matters. It helps that you have a small pension and medical bennies. I've known quite a few cops in the airlines, and I don't recall any of them who wished they had stayed in LE.