I'll also add that there is a retired army guy at my airline who drove 6 hours from Dothan to Savannah to catch a commute flight to NY for a couple years until he moved to Savannah...that was the closest decent commute airport for him, and he had friends there to crash with if he couldn't get on a flight. I don't think his wife saw him very much. I know guys who drive from DFW-IAH or vice versa because driving 4-5 hours is sometimes easier than commuting on a 45 min flight. Ditto for other 2-4 hour drive city pairs depending on how the typical loads are, weather/cancelations, etc.

Depending on what airline you are at, you can overnight at home if you can bid/hold trips that overnight where you live. That can make up for time lost commuting. It can also result in getting paid to commute to work with virtual basing, jetway trades, etc., or premium trips if someone there calls out sick and they need someone to operate the flight back, etc. and have no reserves since it isn't a base for your airline. Also, if your airline has many trips that start/end with deadheads, once you can hold those, and if your airline allows it, you can self DH, not get on your scheduled DH and pick up your trip where it starts. That's another method of getting paid to commute to work.

You'll figure a lot of this out once you start. But for planning purposes, plan on life sucking commuting to reserve at a regional, then getting incrementally better each month as your seniority gets better and you become a line holder. For me, I will take my transcon commute to NY before I'd move there, and I will eventually move into one of my airline's bases once I'm done with my mil stuff.