I did the move from a very large 91K job to SWA about five years ago, and I haven't regretted the move for one single minute. Not during COVID, not when I saw my classmates finally upgrade (after more than a decade), not ever. Did I enjoy the 91K job? Overall, yes. But I enjoy SWA so much more, for two main reasons:

First and foremost, my circadian rhythm doesn't get screwed with. I'm a night owl; I have been since the day I was born. So I work the afternoon/evening schedules (PM trips as they're known here), and it works great for me.

Second, I'm home more, and I can control the days I work to a large degree. I do this by bidding lines that work days I want, swapping with other pilots, or picking up days in the open time system as needed. Example: the air conditioner on my wife's car blew out, and it was about a $2000 repair. I went into the open time system, and was able to pick up an extra day trip that pays 12.9 TFP (about $2000) to fly to Chicago and back, and go back to my own bed. Simple as that. No committing to a higher-paying schedule for months at a time. Just work what I want/need at the time.

Other things... I'm never gone more than 3 nights at a time aside from some training events. When I commuted, it was sometimes 4 nights away at a time if I couldn't get home after an evening trip, but even as a commuter, I was home way more nights than at the fractional job. Now that I live in a base, I'm typically in hotels 9-10 nights a month. When I commuted, even as a brand new pilot, I was gone max maybe 12 nights, whereas I was gone 15+ nights a month at my fractional job. Home life became dramatically better when I came here because of that.

I can also pick schedule lines with cities that I like. I can find a line with a long overnight in a city where I have friends or family, and actually make plans in advance. (Sure, we get rerouted occasionally, but it's the exception, not SOP.) I see friends and family far more than I did at the 91K job. If you're on the west coast bases (OAK/LAX/LAS), you can go to Hawaii if you want. I enjoy that greatly.

As a commuter (from a large city to one of our bases), it was still better. Now that I live in base, it's dramatically better. Living in one of our bases and during a hiring boom, I doubt you'd have to commute for more than a couple of months, so I wouldn't let that dissuade you at all if you had to work out of OAK or LAX for a couple of months.