Lol the same reason those same pilots flock to low paying, crap QOL, maltreatment infused regional airline gigs. ("Get-a-real-flying-job" itis). The industry noticed this trend and decided to supply those types of jobs and, pilots needing to get into the industry somehow, enabled the industry to keep supplying these jobs by accepting the terms that went along with the cool flying.

They do it because the price of saying "NO!!!!!" comes at too high of a cost to pilots. "No," pretty much means surrendering your foothold in the industry to three or four other lower time pilots who would gladly do the job for free let alone get paid pennies for it. It really is a question of each person in the situation, "Will I stand up for what I really believe pilots should be paid and turn down the job or will I surrender to their terms and accept the job to get into the industry?"

Until enough of the pilot community is mistreated by the market place, the problem for us lower totem poll-ers will continue. I don't knock the airline industry for it, that's the free market economy (well, close to it anyways). I'd rather it this way then Nazi-Germany Style, at least we (we meaning the target market for their jobs {ie. pilots}) control the overall trend.