"IF" American dumps the non WO carriers (which they said that they are going to start doing soon), and "IF" the only way to get hired by AA is through the flow, then the flow will work and the WO regionals will still be around in a few years.

If the WO regionals have 5000 pilots, and it is a set 5-6 year flow to mainline guaranteed, then it will work. The WO will in essence just be a B-scale for American.

It seems that United and Delta are taking flying back, and AA is trying to shrink the number of contract carriers while growing their WO. Watch for it to continue.