Honestly, being a senior FO, you can make junior captain money without working too hard. Where you lose is in sick pulls, vacation, and other nonfly events and that isn't insignificant.

I personally wouldn't want to downgrade, but I flew with someone who did in Denver fairly recently, and he was doing just fine. He got sick of the weekend reserve grind and decided it wasn't worth it. I get it. It's too bad that the union gave away the Lance Captain program, as it offered a great way to cushion the blow and really helped grease the open time market for both seats.