Higher qualified applicants are more likely to get multiple offers vs. lesser qualified. No doubt. They might not be getting the best FO's because of that.
In a highly competitive market with an enormous surplus of applicants, it's also true that a highly qualified applicant could only get 1 offer. With having several thousand applicants on file, can they get enough good ones to sign? With the sign rate reportedly more than half of CJO'S offered, their strategy is working.

Desperation doesn't have to be duress from financial circumstances or similar. What if someone's life and family are established in a Western state and the only regional with a base there is SkyWest? Is it desperate to choose SkyWest with contract vs. commuting to PHL/CLT for Piedmont? Commute that far for a regional? Sell your house with an older, low interest mortgage for something to move out East? What dollar value do you place on "living in base"? (Especially if you can do it as both FO and CA)? And presumably we're all going to expect being at a regional for several years as the new norm...