Respectfully, (not defending some of the companies moves), but this feels like a pilots/company created phenomenon. The fact that many categories never even get to GS stage of trip coverage often tells me a combo of CS inexperience, and OOBWS/WS shenanigans is F'ing up the system that had prevailed for a generation.

I don't have the data (and don't care that much about it since I can't control it) but we've been run VERY hot before. Long before ALPA put in the reroute restrictions (IDK but circa 2018 or so) there was a time where we were so short that the company just rerouted you almost every rotation to cover broken trips. Only thing that stayed mostly constant was start/stop day. Newer contracts have put serious $$$ penalties to that behavior and even tho we may be short, there has to be oodles of pilots who would come in for GS pay, just never given the opportunity, meanwhile the company pays daily triple time on multiple trips.

IMO, we can all go "yeah, we have the company by the shorthairs" as they prioritize completion over costs at the moment, but this cost will come from the hides/wallets of the hordes of other pilots who won't sit around and farm for 23M7.

That provision for years was to cover immediate happen chances, like "hey, pilot here on scene wants to fly, but someone was due a chance for that trip", so to make everyone whole and cover the trip. For most of my time here, it was seldom used, now it's used on most of the premium trips in my category, effectively making them all pay triple time. That is not sustainable to the company, and not equitable to the pilot group as a whole.