In many ways you are correct. Based on what some read here and in other forums, it's tough for many on the fence about dumping large sums of cash into advanced flight training and clawing to the 1500 hour mark (or 1000 for certain flight schools) to make that commitment considering the atrocious compensation and even more aggregious treatment of pilots by regional employers. But the 3 legacies have yet to fully engage their hiring. Once that occurs it will also create new vacuums at less desirable mid-level LCC's like Spirit, Allegient and Jet Blue, just to name a few who will also drain from the regionals. Once this tsunami hits, it will wash pilots out of regionals far faster than can be replaced and the multi-year pipeline for basic qualification cannot even meet today's pre-wave situation.

My local airports pattern is usually empty and my old college while still having a flight program, is finding it challenging to attract freshman to ante up the significant extra money/debt for such a feeble payoff. Another University a few hours away closed its very large and nationally known flight school. The information highway including forums has also washed the historic B.S., promises and lies propagated by the industry to snooker new generations of would-be pilots with the same empty promises and propaganda swallowed by those previous. I count half a dozen pilots alone of high school/college age I've counseled on the realities of the airline path and backed it up with hard facts. Pointing them to various forums for a broader perspective of regional life and its trials and tribulations has also let them see the good, bad and ugly and let's face it, all one has to do is read these forums and see the bad and ugly have so far, far outweighed the good. Only considering today's landscape doesn't identify the impact of the wave that will smash into the regionals full force in 12-18 months when legacies are hiring just as many new RJ's are simultaneously arriving needing A LOT of pilots. There are training bubbles to maintain as well.

I think you are erroneously assessing this situation by looking at the current tide, which is deceptive. Just like a real tsunami, the tide is receding and a strange calm exists. When the wave is upon the regionals, it will be sudden, fast and far too late to react. The clues are all there now though, it's just it appears no one really wants to face its significance. Unfortunately, that's par for the airline industry, i.e., disregard until it becomes a crisis and then beg regulators and labor for help.

I find it interesting to note you say "we" when discussing pilot behavior almost like a recruiter for a flight school as opposed to an individual representing his own perceptions. You sure you're just a run of the mill part 61/141 trained pilot who wants to fly the airlines reading pilot web boards ?