No matter which AC you get, marketing runs the show with total and complete impunity. They will dump tons of EWR trips into a category for one month or a few years with no ability to predict, then pull them way down or eliminate them altogether. Even when an AC has EWR trips, there is a built in contingent of pilots there already who prefer EWR trips, so while most NYC pilots don't prefer them, you have built in competition of senior pilots for the few that are there.

Right now, and its been that way for a while, the 717 is the king of EWR for DL. Too lazy to spreadsheet it, but IIRC anywhere from 25-33% of its trips have been EWR most months. However its not a big category, and again you will be competing with lots of west NYC locals but should be able to get EWR trips some of the time or some months even all of the month.

For now.

We have another AC on the way and its similar size as the 717 and will be based somewhere in NYC. We won't really know how it will be deployed there until a few years after its initially deployed there.

Also consider that EWR717 may not be the QOL you're looking for. When you're brand new and on the bottom anyway, one or two EWR trips may be a huge perk. But NYC717 trips are some of the worst in the system. One month they bragged about reaching 25% commutability in the trip mix. That means they all start early and finish late, work you hard and you'll get fewer days off.

As we get more 330's you'll likely notice in a year or two that getting to JFK for longer, easier trips and late reports/earlier releases may eclipse the EWR/JFK drive differential by a wide margin.

Or even when you're in a category where you could get EWR trips, if there are better trips out of JFK/LGA you may find yourself bidding those if they are much better trips, which sometimes they are.

Monthly schedules out of JFK/LGA that would give you 2,3 or 4 extra days off compared to a redlined early report late release EWR schedule means 24, 36 or 48 additional days off per year.

Best advice is to just accept the reality that EWR is a small micro climate at DL and even when you get to where you can sharpshoot only those pairings, you may not value it as highly as you do when you're new and everything else is equal anyway, and network can (and likely will) easily shift them away any given month anyway, sometimes for a while.

Is that drive differential worth walking away from 1000 pilots junior to you to start over at UAL? IMO not even remotely close, but YMMV.