Haha, no reason for me to be un-gentle...

I agree with pretty much your entire post (and I feel the same way about your perspective btw., like the common sense, upbeat and to-the-point attitude).
I'd only like to add that although ups would like for us to live near our domiciles - it is NOT required, which of course is driving some of our managers nuts.

However, I don't blame new-hires for not wanting to live in Anchorage. Alaska is a beautiful place but winters can be harsh and long. The main issue for new hires is the what-iffs scenarios.

We're hiring and things are looking great, right? Well, wouldn't you say that '04-'06, maybe even '07 period looked about as promising? ..and then it wasn't anymore?
Sure, different scenarios, different conditions, I get it. However, as pilots we always plan for the worst case situation in flight. Many of us do the same with our daily lives. We all sign up for health care insurance, mutual aid, supplemental insurance, etc. Just-in-case.

Last time many of the new-hires who moved to Anchorage ended up being furloughed. They didn't get any help whatsoever with getting back to lower 48 to look for other jobs (at the time jobs in AK were almost impossible to find).
A guy I know paid over $40K to move his family back to lower 48.
When they got recalled many, if not most, had to pay for their own hotel rooms because the company viewed them as Anchorage based during the furlough even though many of them were sdf-based, well at least on paper (displaced out of anc but never finished training).

So why risk it now? Better build up some seniority 'furlough-buffer'. Note - I'm not predicting a furlough, not at all!
Just saying that holding off on actually moving to anc makes sense. Especially for new-hires.

So even though the company would like for us to live in our domiciles they can't force us. I sincerely hope that our union and the company start looking for commuting solutions because it'll probably get worst once the new planes start arriving.

Typical sdf-anc commute...