One additioal note;
Maybe something as simple as an update to the FAR's would be a solution. An additional FAA certificate required to be eligible for employed by the airlines. A certificate that falls somewhere in between the TT requirements of a commercial and an ATP. I'm sure that the original language was not meant to allow a pilot with 250 hours to sit right seat in a 76 pax jet for an airline but rather to allow a pilot to make money and/or reduce the cost involved to get the time that the airlines required for employment at that time.