There are a few reasons for the divide.

Corporate pilots applying to Major Airlines generally don't have any where near the flight time experience that guys at regionals with the same # of years flying professionally. In my previous job at a regional airline, I logged on average about 800-850 hrs a year. Now at my corporate part 91 gig, I'm lucky if I see 250 a year.

As a result, my former peers that are still working in the regional world have several thousand hours more than me after a few years.

When comparing resumes, an HR manager is more likely to prefer higher flight time/PIC turbine experience in the 121 world over somebody with only part 91 experience.

Likewise, corporate gigs are wary of hiring airline guys, often because they cannot grow accustomed to working "outside of the system." As stated before, some former airline pilots (not all) feel that all of the additional "work" involved with corporate/private flying is below them. These are often the guys that didn't interact with passengers, and flew strictly by whatever contract/union agreement they worked under. Many of these guys fail (or leave) corporate jobs because they don't have the flexibility that this job demands.

For example, my current gig is a feast or famine type job. We're either going 1,000 miles per hour with 7 trips in a row, or we're dead stop with weeks on end without flying (my record so far is 8.5 hrs of block in a continuous 3 month stretch).

Two weeks ago, we had to get creative to make the schedule work. In 6 days on the road, I flew over 38 hours and put in over 47 hours of duty time. Obviously you could never do such a thing at an airline. However, we accomplished such a schedule because we as the crew were comfortable with the arrangements made with regards to company mandated rest, the type of hotels we stayed at, and the working conditions (hot catered meals, circadian rhythm, etc).

Most airline drivers that I know of would balk at such an assignment. Personally, it's just part of the territory. I don't mind ordering catering, flight planning, loading bags, making coffee, or tending to passenger needs. I even don't mind the little bit of office work and aircraft cleaning that we do...

At the end of the day, I make a good wage (salaried) with excellent benfits and retirement (fully funded and projected at multi-millions by age 60). Best of all, I only spent 30 some odd nights on the road last year.

With each job you trade some things and get other benefits. The two things that I miss from the airline world are working with a diverse group of people and travel benefits. The two biggest things that I enjoy about corporate flying are QOL, and the variety of flying that it has to offer.