I can neither confirm nor deny this directly, and I have absolutely no inside baseball to share. That said....

After having had my app in at Delta for nearly a year following my mil retirement (DL was the first I applied to, my first choice all along), I got my interview invite within days after I updated my app with 100 hours of Part 121 time. I was current when I retired (fortunate to have a flying job for my last assignment), so it wasn't "only" about that.

Related? No way for me to be certain, but the timing sure makes it look that way. Whenever any of my retiring/separating buds ask me, my advice is to apply where they want to end up, but also to apply "everywhere" and take the first offer, even if it's "only" a regional (for crap pay/schedule/QoL/ect.), in order to keep themselves atop the pile....