I think we all like to imagine that merit has a bigger role than it really does because we can control it easily.

Sure, hours and record count, but basically every girl I went to flight school with has gone right seat to right seat (or almost, picked up right after upgrade) to the majors. The biggest difference between any two pilots isn't hours or record, it's softs (including diversity based) or networking.

The people I know that don't have any obvious +++ softs either have a "mentor"/relative in the hiring/management side of the mainline shop or bounced off another outfit, like Alaska, for a year or two first. People deny my experience strenuously sometimes because it offends their sense of equity or something I guess, but I can't be the only one who has noticed this pattern.