Comparing artist to pilots might not be the best analogy, since pilots are more of a skilled labor than artists. I feel like, a good artist is good because of talent. And im not saying artist don't go to school to train their craft, but you can't compare that to the type of training pilots go through. I honestly think that our jobs are more on the lines of doctors and lawyers. Simply because pilots never stop learning in their lines of work. There's always something new that pilots learn, or even re-learn. How many times pilots go, oh man its been a while since i've seen this let me look it up. It happens all the time.
The unfortunate thing is that you're right, pilots will fly no matter how low the pay is, but it HAS to stop somewhere right? I mean you're going to tell me that a new young pilot will spend 50K on training and go into a job to make 18K?
I guess as an instructor, it should start with us, we should tell the students what's right and wrong and maybe sometime in the future it will change. (hopefully)