With your background in nursing, I'd keep my foot on that side. With 20 years or CCN experience, you should be poised to find telehealth, remote work or anything non-bedside related with enough flexibility to afford you part-time pro-flying until conditions improve enough to put you back on the path you seek. I bring that up because prseumably you're quitting 20 years of nursing because you're burnt out with bedside. My wife is ACU RN and going for FNP for schedule and quality of life improvements for our household. So I understand if "beside QOL" is why you're wanting out of nursing.

I don't think eating years of undercompensation in your 40s during a time of airline non-hiring, is going to get you closer to the line significantly faster; it's just running in place, given the hiring has already stopped in your target destination (mainline 121) and 2025 is a down cycle. Of course I'm a QOL over MaxW2 guy, I rather be on the outside than transcon commute at the bottom of any relative seniority category for an indeterminate amount of time, at any longevity pay. A bit of a hot take, but we all have priorities in life, and that's an individual's prerrogative at the end of the day. I'm just saying if I had my wife's background as a backup, part time pro flying would be my go to in this environment.

Good luck to ya.