That's because they're ill-informed, their hatred towards anyone in a bag blinds them, or both. I'm a flying E and the USAF paid me 25K three years ago to re-enlist and also gave more promotions to my career field because we're critically manned. I've also seen pilots RIF'd without any of the typical negative indicators (UIF, Art 15, etc), just probably a weaker PRF than average. No one is "screwing over the E's", they for most part don't understand the O side of promotions/retention because they aren't exposed to it.