Opinion: Take it or leave it
Most FO's on property could care less about upgrading and want to move on as soon as possible. Those that are hardcore interested in flying for AA may stick around vs going to another airline and then jumping to AA.
Ask a recruiter what current base seniority is. It changes all the time though. Miami has the most senior folks with people hired in late 2022 still on reserve. Again this will change quarterly. Once on property you can get a sense of things and bid a different base if you feel like it.
Hiring has slowed down a great deal because of aircraft delivery issues at various companies. We can all hope it will pick up if/when alternative aircraft become available but who knows. An economic hiccup could extend the reduced pace of hiring. Thus keeping more people senior to you on property. Some senior folks bid reserve because they can work the system and make lots of extra money flying on days off. This helps some of the junior pilots get lines when just looking at the list top to bottom you wouldn't think they would.
Commuting sucks. Comutting to reserve sucks even more. I don't care what airline you work for. It turns a part-time job into a full-time job. You will give up a lot of your personal life commuting. I refuse to do it. I would rather quit flying then ask for rides every week. Been there done that, did it for 10 years, and quit an airline because of it. Moving for me wasn't an option.
As far as being a DEC on reserve put things in perspective. You are being paid more than your FO's (generally speaking) who may be senior to you. You are in the left seat, which most people love, and you are flying generally good equipment. Not much to complain about in my opinion. There are some weak areas in our contract that I don't know if they will ever get fixed but the same can be said just about anywhere.
As far as companies go I think Envoy is a good place. It will always be a regional with regional issues but there are far worse places to work.