I think you're underestimating how many people want LAX/SEA, sadly.
Comparing to other 175 operators that aren't throwing out some huge retention bonus for a reason (ie skywest), our pay is pretty close to Skywest, minus the bonus. And the upgrade time at CPZ for west coast bases is far better than Skywest's. At Skywest it could take awhile just to hold SEA as an FO, even, their SEA CA upgrade time on the 175 is years longer than ours and will stay that way for awhile.