Reserve vs Line
That is not necessarily the case. It depends a lot on the regional and the base. At Horizon right now our reserve utilization is nowhere near that high.
To answer your question, it's mostly about control. In the case of how reserve is here, no reserve is commutable and you don't get your schedule until 24 hours out if they do have you flying. With a line you can more easily bid and adjust for commutable trips. You'll typically get more days off holding a line than reserve. We have a really stupid 35 day bidding system and the way it always works is on reserve you get 13 days off. That means each reserve day is effectively worth 3.92 credits. If you're holding a line, chances are you can credit more than that per day on average so lines usually have 15-18 days off.