Doing the calculator at military.com this is what I come up with for an 8yr O-3 drawing BAS, BAQ, and Flight Pay: $123,830. That's using CLT for BAQ which is a low to moderate COL.
Throw in the max bonus for signing your life away ($50K) and you're looking at $173,830 annually.
After making O-4 it's $196,078 total with bonus. O-5 is $204,841.

Looking at someone like Delta you're making over $150K by year 2. And factor the spouse working, something they may not be able to do when getting a PCS every 3-4 years.

The Air Force has never been able to manage their pilot force. In 1989 we were offered a bonus to sign up until year 14. Back then the commitment for pilot training was 6-7 years I think. I was in from spring 1981 until early 1989.
I remember how the wives of the O-4's were so angry because O-3's would be making more if they took the bonus. O-4's weren't eligible. Of course some squadron commanders misused the bonus as a "loyalty test", if you didn't take it you weren't a "team player".

I remember reading in the past few years they changed the promotion percentage from O-3 to O-4 to 100% to encourage pilots to stay in. Basically unless you really screwed up you'd make Major. That was a smart move that might have helped some. But AFAIK they haven't done the one thing many pilots want.....to keep on flying, not do desk jobs. A professional pilot track.