As to the original question...

I think that a young, single, lineholder at a better regional airline can have a pretty good lifestyle (at a bottom-feeder, it's going to blow any way you slice it).

That said, there's a catch...

Most folks enjoy it for the first year or so. After that, things change...if you are family and friend oriented it gets a little harder.

The ideal person for the regional life would be a bohemian wildchild who can find friends and fun wherever he/she happens to be. Of course these folks often have conflicts with the requirements of the airline job (responsibility, drugs).

The problem is that the personality traits that lead one into flying usually mean spouse and family are in the future. What happens if you get stuck at the regional? Well if you're senior enough, wife works, can live in domicile, and hold locals/standups it might not be so bad...until your regional loses the domicile, loses the contract, furloughs, etc.

Since there is no longer any reasonably safe assumption that you will advance beyond the regional, you have to carefully consider MULTIPLE career paths, how likely they are, what you have to do to get there, and if you would even want to do them:
- Regional Lifer
- Major
- Corporate/Fractional
- Unable to progress beyond regional, change careers.