I think all people who preach/demand the 1500hr ATP for a regional FO should put the number of hours they had at the time they were first hired to fly in their signature. I would bet that there are a lot that got hired with far less than 1500 hours and are now against the very conditions under which they got hired.

135 mins are pretty close to 1500 hours so getting PIC 135 time is out for most, traffic jobs are few and far between now that they have cameras everywhere, banner jobs aren't that easy to get in most places and jumpers are the same way. So now you are back to being a CFI if you can find a school/job. My memory may be slipping but I don't remember aircraft just falling out of the sky a few years ago when people were getting jobs with a wet COM. Oh and if you go to a 141 school they didn't have 250 hours either, it was much less.

I do believe that training should be harder, testing should be harder and more indepth. That goes both ways though and recurrent training probably needs to be a lot harder for captains as well. You should be tested to a point of weeding out the weak, whether that be a 250 hour wonder, a 1500 hour CFI or a 15000 hour captain. Hours don't make the pilot. The type of hours make the pilot.

I do think that if the 1500 hour "law" is implemented and firm on the hours, you will see a new round of PFT programs at frieght companies and others. Simple fact is that people are going to pay to get to the 1500 hours if that is what the limit is. Not everyone wants to / needs to / or can be a CFI so the people that think the only way to be a "real" pilot is to be a CFI need to come to terms with reality and move on. Becoming a pilot is a second career for many and frankly they don't have the time to work 2-3 years as a CFI. Regional pay is bad enough without prolonging the pain 2-3 more years. Right or wrong it is what it is.

Good thing the FAA and congress wasn't around back in the day. Orvil and Wilber would have had to have 1500 hours before heading down to kitty hawk, then where would we all be.