"If airlines were forced to only hire high time pilots(1000+/ATP rated)"

While I'd love to see this, you'd still have the old argument that "I once knew a 3000 hour pilot that couldn't fly his way out of a paper bag".

To that I'd say there are a lot more 1500 hours ATP's that can do a better job in the right seat of an RJ than 300 hour direct trackers.