For those questioning Albies logic, a friend of mine was just called by UAL 12 months after completeing IOE at his regional airline. Did his three years prior to retirement on a staff tour.
Think of it like this... it's retirement with a little beer money for flying small jets with big travel benefits. Eventually you will get called but the majors will not risk the capital expenditure to get you recurrent so long as the have 12k current and qualified apps.