The differential between current rate and fifith year rate is about 15 bucks an hr, give or take. Yes, I was hired earlier rather than later, or really late in the general process, depending on how you are looking at it!
Point is that I would be in the bottom 1% versus where I am now. It has been the same for all hiring waves though out the history of a seniority based system. Just ask the 86 sans the 88/89 crowd. Lets not mention the poor 91 hires.
If we were stovepiped which would be akin to the current system I have a better QOL today, and an even better QOL of later. I would make more money too, just not in ATL(today)
If we went to a longevity based system, I would make whatever the median rate would be, so about what I make today, and I would be on a bigger jet with about the same QOL I have now.
The LBS works better for guys hired at the end of waves and hurts the other 75-80% of people hired in those same waves. (honest opinion) Like I said, I suspect we would see everything really senior and really junior since pay would no longer be an object. The bottom 11% of the list would be on reserve and the rest would find lines. Sounds great, but the reality is some choose reserve for a reason. Money is one of them, and so is the ability to not fly as much.
QOL and its definition is different to each of us. It also chances as one gets older. For me a guy who has a wife that works full time and young kiddos; weekends off is key. For a pilot that is on his second marriage who is married to a FA and has grown kids, weekends mean nothing but holidays do. Holidays are defined differently for each of us to . Some want Christmas off, Some Chinese New year, some Passover, some the Greek New Year or Christmas, some none, but like to be off in the middle of the week when the stores are less crowded. The point is that trying to define a pay system by QOL is like using fuzzy math. Its value is different for each of us.
One last point. We are looking at a LBS because of what we see today, but forget that the trajectory will change quickly here to most if not all of us being A's or senior WB FO's over the next few years (Retirements, and an assumed status quo) Point is both systems have pluses and minuses, but as Sink has pointed out, the biggest detractor to the LBS is the ability to quickly rationalize the list due to where the most junior pilots will be sitting. It is a valid point and one that does not need to be brushed over.