We work in the culture of "wo-is-me the regional pilot". Tales of suffering are told like war stories. The more furloughs you have under your belt the more respect you get... (Maybe you were furloughed because you kept chasing an upgrade that never happened???)
The real reason that the Buffalo crash occurred is that the regional airlines, much more then than now, had a large pool of 300 hour wunderpilotin that were young and saw the opportunity to fly 121, upgrade, and get out fast. #1 condition for job acceptance was "how long until upgrade?" Translation, "How long do I have to agree to make less than I can live on and crashpad it etc. until I can make a wage that will allow me to pay back 100K in debt?" Certainly the crew was acting unprofessional, but the real reasons were inexperience and complacency. Get the CVR from most majors and I assure you they will be chatting all the way to the pavement although, perhaps not in those conditions (snow/ice etc). Movement in a company keeps a labor group cheap. There is no monetary incentive to keep a senior pilot group. Bankruptcy is a tool that the airlines use to discharge debt and force the pilot group to take monetary concessions in order to improve the bottom line. At the regionals they don't have to go through bankruptcy, although they do sometimes, they can just whipsaw and re-subcontract under a "new" airline.
You accept the attitude and the payment structure for the airline where you work when you take the job. If you are willing to work for a place that treats you poorly and really doesn't care about your personal quality of life because you are looking for a quick upgrade, that is your choice. If the union you work under forces the company into insupportable compensation you will drive the company into insolvency. It is ridiculous to expect 100k as an FO working under a 1% profit margin at a subcontractor. We all see huge numbers in revenue at Delta, $124 million at one point, when in actuality they handled billions to sift out that profit. It was a function of the new scale of their operation. The airlines are seen more and more as a public right. My friend got his MBA recently. In his curriculum they demonstrated that the airlines are an example of poorly run business. Back when the train/bus was the norm, and flying was luxurious. Now bus fare is probably more expensive than flying. If we really wanted to fix our collective situation we would re-regulate routes and fix prices at a realistic rate that would allow airlines to cover their operating costs and deliver a reliable, safe product. Competition causes us to suffer in this highly-regulated business. We are policed from all sides on our operations already and adding market forces (driving price down) to onerous taxation and user-fees (another tax) will never allow us make enough to cover the bills if we keep round-housing each other with bargain-basement contracts that lose money. The junior labor group with the least-costly payroll wins the big contract. At some cargo operations they even get "FO's" to pay for a job. One day pilots may become hard to find because of increased requirements and training costs. If that occurs the seats at the regionals will disappear like a giant game of musical chairs and you better hope that your operation isn't hit too badly because you will be squeezed for every hour of flight time that they can get out of you in order to deliver as many block hours as they can and there will be no place to go. You want a better QOL? Go to the top of the food chain or eek out a niche at your current operator that makes you more valuable.
rant over.