It's not you, it's the "9". I'm pretty confident that a monkey can fly a CRJ9 in 7 sim sessions.

As far as the original question, the thread starter is right. It' just that the airlines don't have the time and money to leave their recruitment to chance. We all hear of the 200 wonders that can fly like they have years of flying experience, and we've also heard of the 200 wonders that do holding patterns on the ILS. The airline needs a bar and 1000 is it. In my opinion it shouldn't be as high especially for RJs. Yes it's going to be painful for the CAs but all it takes is 1 or 2 months of coaching.