I wound up going the CFI route in 2019 and logged as much as I could from it. When Covid hit, I was short of ATP mins by about 250 hours. The hours were hard to come by, but even then, I continued to fly them—albeit with less demand. Eventually, when I got them and we turned the calendar to 2021, the Regionals started calling.

I know a few guys who left instruction (temporarily, during Covid) to pickup work outside of the industry. It gave them a paycheck, but their flight time took a hit and, as a result, couldn't grow as much. Some of those guys are still chipping away at their ATP mins now and have yet to get calls from the Regionals to the best of my knowledge. (Although the calls will certainly come soon enough.)

My point: do whatever you can to consistently chip away at your hours. Instruction worked for me and I built the time fast.