No their not. I've seen the chart myself. Other than a bunch-up for the Jan-June 2010 hires, they are pretty evenly spaced across the list in DOH. The bunch-up occurs because they were the only ones hiring at the time.

The inverse happens at XJ in DOH due to the BK. There is a large gap in 05-07 with no XJ hires, but a large amount of 9E and 9L. There is a small bunch-up representing 98-99 hires, and I assume this is what you mean by "helps their senior crowd", but remember, these are also the flow individuals.

9Es list was evenly spread throughout.

I would have considered it fair, especially considering XJ took the least gain from the JCBA, which 9E and 9L gained considerably and therefore gained in their "career expectations."