The term regional or commuter is a bit misleading. It alludes to a time not too long ago when the airline was relegated to a small corner of the country. Atlantic Southeast, Atlantic Coast Airlines, Air Wisconsin, Chautauqua, et al that operated in their named region or out of one or two hubs in that region serving regional markets. Obviously, it has significantly morphed since then as scope compliant regional jet aircraft were literally invented to fit nicely within those cutouts.

Now, I'll be the first to say that regional pilots need to be compensated better than they currently are. Unfortunately, from an economic standpoint, regionals are just subcontract labor and only exist because they can do it cheaper than the mainline entity. They are able to staff this model using lower wages because, during a major labor surplus, people would take any job especially one that was seen as a "pathway to the majors." While that concept has since died, the regional model is using an apprenticeship model to staff their flying.

So, to your question. This isn't about skills. At one point, during the TProp days, it was. As long as the regionals exist in their current form, they will always be an apprenticeship for the majors and will pay apprentice wages. As soon as the economics no longer support this model, the regionals will shrink dramatically until it does.