What sort of future do the PhD drop out hold?

it all depends on you and what you want to do with your life. if you wanna get into academia, you still can presuming you'll at least get the MPhil but some lecturers don't even have postgrad degrees. If you want to get into industry, might be a bit difficult, but you can still do it. it's not the end of the world if you drop out, if you can pick yourself up.

Surely a PhD is more essential for a career in academia than industry? To get anywhere nowdays in academia doing research you need a PhD. Some lecturers don't have postgraduate degrees probably because they've been doing it for years and entered the profession when there wasn't such a demand for places and hence are qualified by experience! In industry a PhD can get you into a managerial position faster but you can still work your way to the top like many people.

PhDs are not the norm in industry but they are in academia now.