Its been a while (2007) but when I was at Eagle I did not find it too onerous.
I was on reserve for about 6 months, 3 in LGA, 3 in BOS (I live in HYA), then held a line. My commute to NY was never that hard. I was rarely hot reserve in LGA, but I was not the most junior (I was #3 from the bottom, the Junior guy was always hot reserve). I knew what CS was going to do to me, about 85% of the time. I could proffer for the open trips I wanted. I could move my RSV days around, and make many family functions. The crews were without exception excellent. Lots of upside.

Before Eagle I was at PSA, commuting to CLT, no idea what CS was going to do to me. (Couldn't see how many reserves were there, how many trips were uncovered, couldn't proffer for trips). 18 months reserve, with no apparent movement. Eagle was a much better place for me. A current coworker was at Eagle, moved to ExpressJet and found the conditions in IAH more to his liking.

In short, there are worse places to be(some much worse). But commuting to sit reserve is awful no matter where you work.