No, I didn't miss anything.

An increased wage doesn't cleanse the stink of poor maintenance. There will always be a line for the 36 street operator, and while WGA operates from the shadows of Estero, they are still very much a 36th street operator in every sense, including their training location.

Increasing wages will not drive "most" pilots to WGA. It may make it more palatable, but won't be adequate to draw a long line of highly-qualified candidates, let alone "most." Neither will it make WGA a career destination for most, or a majority of pilots.

WGA is to be commended for increasing wages, albeit far late in the game. Their brief "covid incentive" that lasted a couple of months, after taking government money for the employees (and pocketing most of it, paying the employees a little, and then discontinuing the charade) is an example. Their bringing back their "covid incentive" at a lesser rate was an afterthought attempt to shrug off a union vote, and a poor one, given that it was less than the original "covid incentive."

I am not saying pilots should, or should not go to WGA. The reputation, however, is known, and boosting a wage isn't going to cause attrition from legacies and desirable locations like FedEx and UPS, back to an outfit like WGA, nor would it make WGA a career destination for "most" pilots. Some, perhaps, but then there are already a number of pilots who are with WGA who will stay there, and there's already a line of those wishing to shortcut their regional experience, looking for an interview.

There is a lot that WGA can do to bolster it's reputation and it's desirability, but merely cobbling up the wage isn't the magic bean to drive "most" pilots there. Face it: many who are there now question whether the company will be around in a few years, and few believe they'll see anything from the ESOP, beyond the cheerleader(s). What WGA needs to do is be competitive, but that's a lot more than raw wage. 15 hours of airlining to anchorage to get at best four hours rest at the hotel before heading out to Incheon isn't the desired life many want, nor operating eighteen hours only to get another 18 hours of deadhead on the tail end and a note from the chief pilot advising that, "your rest does not justify the cost to the company." Those who enjoy 22 DMI stickers on the overhead panel, who revel in rejected takeoffs, diversions, air turnbacks, and making three pages of writeups after landing, and seeing most of them cancelled as could-not-duplicate, may be enamored with 421 an hour as their sole criteria for abandoning long-term employment at a legacy or FedEx or UPS, but "most" will certainly not.