While I agree with that premise, the fact remains you're thinking like a pilot and not an airline manager. It is not in any airline's best interests for their regionals to fail.

Whipsawing keeps costs down. They whipsaw the regionals against the mainline to keep mainline costs down and they whipsaw regionals against each other to keep feed costs down. It's a win for the airline. They don't GAS what pilots think about it.