Slicd and Saab.... I agree, but I dont believe thats the reality of todays airline business. Its sorta like like pandora's box.... once we/they went down this road , probably never going back. Instead of simply believing that -900 and the like dont "belong" at the National/Jet level (nothing regional about most of these companies anyways) carriers a more productive stance might be to find an appropriate wage level at these carriers for those aircraft. The business model of commercial airline companies has been changing for 15 years with more and more international and domestic long haul ( with some high load factor routes thrown in ) and smaller aircraft in general with higher frequency on domestic routes of 1 to 3 hours.

And Slice..... you speak with disdain as if some pilots shouldnt make a career of companies at this level, there are and will always be those that will do so and it is the RIGHT choice for them.