Your FAA folks are new? They can't dictate for the airline to lower standards and if they allow mx standards to be decreased it can only go down to what is allowed anyways which should've always been allowed if Eagle wanted to opt with the lower requirement.

I guess to the overall question, do other carriers have their pilots "balancing" both sides of the MEL page? Yes. New term though for many of us as what is deemed balancing is really nothing more than filling out the MEL page as we see it correctly prior to the next flight, a) problem, b) solution.

There is only 1 case I can think of at Delta where we have what amounts to an open write up but really isn't and it's specifically allowed. And that's a requirement to write that we did a max power takeoff and there is no corrective action required. I hate looking at it after all of these years of that being a major FAIL to continue on like that but I've seen with my own eyes that it's the procedure and I'm fine with it. But other than that I should be able to walk into any aircraft look at the logbook and see a logbook that either is blank, has a write up with a maintenance sign off, a write up with a MEL or a write up that no matter how mundane = AOG.

Sorry that's happening at Eagle. If you ever hear "we have to cut costs by 30%" then you're being sold. That seems to be the common M&A procedure, 30%.