Applicant A hired on at Pinnacle, 600TT. 4 months for training. Flies ~75 hrs a month for a total of 900 hrs per year.

Applicant B hired on at Eagle, 600TT. 4 months for training. Flies ~75 hrs a month as well.

Based on a snapshot of upgrades TODAY (which is also historical for the past 12-18 months), Applicant A will be able to upgrade when meeting company minimums of 2500 hours (1000+ in CRJ). I believe that there is also a new program that might allow these mins to be lowered to 2000TT (1500 in company CRJ). So after flying for about 1 year and 6 months, applicant A can upgrade.

Applicant B on the other hand waits 5 years to upgrade. In that same time, applicant A will fly 3+ years as a captain at Pinnacle, more than enough time to get 1000PIC and move on past the regional airline phase of their career. Additionally, in that time, applicant A will make significantly more money that the "career FO" who is waiting out the upgrade.

Not saying that either path is better than the other (I myself had 4+ years as a first officer without upgrade before I was furloughed), but IMHO, the less time you can spend at the regionals (particularly as a FO), the better off you'll be in the long run.