Unicorn or not, I'm less concerned about the age of a pilot than I am about his qualifications and experience. You brought up the age thing as if it was some major safety deviation by Delta or AA. But, you have no idea what those particular pilot's qualifications were and that's far more important than their age, IMO.

Look. I agree the ALPA party line is BS.

But doing whatever possible to ensure we have experienced pilots flying -121 ops in the US is not. They need to have that experience and foundational base of ingrained skills before they get that job. Because you don't become a better stick and rudder, hands on, IFR capable pilot once you start flying typical airline trips. Do we need those skills on a routine airline trip? Maybe not....until we do. I will never accept the argument that automation is an acceptable substitute for flying ability.

Trying to argue that the 1500 hour rule has or hasn't made things safer is difficult from either direction and while I think it has, I don't care if it can be proven or not. It requires more flight time (and in most cases that means more experience) before someone's able to enter into 121 ops and IMO, that's a good thing.

We need to ensure new pilots with enough money combined with flight schools looking to pump out barely qualified students don't join up to put guys with barely dry tickets and a few hundred hours into an RJ.

It's difficult to understand why you would make any attempt to argue for such a practice.