Raising the bar at the regionals benefits both of these groups: the lifers get a job they can comfortably stay at and the fact that the regionals get more expensive prompts mainline to take back some of the flying they've outsourced, creating more mainline jobs for those who want to go to a major. Everybody wins - except for the people who don't want to put in time as a flight instructor. I think that's why they're looked on with a bit of suspicion: they're the only ones really benefiting from the current situation.

As far as the regionals always being a stepping stone: Yeah, you used to fly a 19 seat turboprop as a stepping stone to getting hired at a major to fly a 100 seat jet. It's a whole new ballgame with regionals flying 50-90 seat jets, and for regional pay and working conditions to remain as depressed as they were in the old days is inexcusable.