Meh. In the broader scheme of things an 8 year Captain at Mesa is holding a decent line (outside of PHX), making 60-80K+/year and getting 11-15 days off per month to babysit a highly-automated jet and a mostly-experienced FO in easy-to-fly North American airspace.

There are much more miserable places to be, and much more miserable places to work. I imagine your friend's miserable-ness has more to do with his past experiences at Mesa through bankruptcy and its aftermath, and/or a tough commute, etc.. If you come into this job with previous airline experience and the cynicism that goes with that, I think you'd find it's not bad compared to a lot of flying gigs at this moment in time.

To each his/her own--there are plenty of people lining up to roll the dice for the quick upgrade, and obviously your personal situation/instincts led you to say no. It's always a tough decision saying yes or no in this industry!