Originally Posted by
35Right
Would you fly for a regional if you knew for a fact you would never make it to a major? If the answer is no, then would you not prefer to know earlier rather than later that they didn't want to hire you? Apply, get rejected, and move on with your life. Or spend years at a regional only to find out later they didn't want you.
I'm not sure where you're going with this. It seems you are jumping to an alternate reality where your conditions exist rather than taking into account the messy transition. Your scenario is as possible as any other guess, but we won't know the conditions until it happens.