There are times where having a small pilot base is tactically important to the company.

Take, for example, the Azores flight that launches on the Max next summer. You think United is going to do ORCA training and qualification on the whole EWR base for just one oceanic trip? That trip will probably be flown by CLE pilots via a EWR layover and UA saves on training hundreds of pilots.

A small base like CLE has value in that alone.