The class of 30 and the class of 8 were primarily to award Captain Positions to DECs. I'm a DEC and was awarded on the 30 list, the junior guy in my class and the last class of DECs were all on the 8 list. Check the award to see how many awarded were listed as "New Hire"

They had to make such big awards big awards in order to get the seniority low enough to pick up all the DECs. They didn't hire all us DECs based on staffing needs, but rather because they were trying to get as many Captains on property as possible before the 1 Jan snapshot for flow, and thats why we are somewhat overstaffed on Captains now.

Which is another trick they pulled. Envoys flow agreement was effective on the Date of Signing, PSAs was several months in the future.