My home town 30 years ago was serviced by a Beech 1900. Everyone hated it. Then we got a Saab 340 and everyone loved it for the first week then they hated it. Now we have a 50 seat jet and still everyone hates it. Overhead bins too small no wifi etc.
You could fly a brand new 180 seat jet with free liquor, wifi and all premium seats and people would still complain. Plenty of 50 seat operators have sector flight times 45 and less. It makes no sense to put larger equipment on a 30 min sector say ORD to Davenport (30 mins flight time) or EWR to Albany which has the same flight time.
The whole "50 seaters are gone" statement by Kirby makes me laugh because it's a huge chunk of the business. Many of the airports served by XJT, AW etc aren't busy enough to support a bigger aircraft unless you drastically reduce frequency. This is a guaranteed way to loose customers.
I know things aren't great right at the moment but we will get over this and how we emerge depends greatly on what is decided now. Don't wanna wake up one morning and find Envoy are now dominating your once safe route network.