Exactly! The whole point of mandating ATP minimums so that one may become an airline pilot is to kill the regionals, or at the very least to elevate starting pay to something more livable. When pay is $17k for someone starting, they are forced to make sacrifices which makes them overwork, or live in conditions such as sleeping in crash pads after a long commute in order to arrive at work on time. Fatigue is a huge issue and is a major contributor to roughly 20% of aviation accidents according to the NTSB! It's no joke. It is good for safety that ATP minimums are required to be hired by an airline because it puts enormous pressure on the regionals which seek to take advantage of the system and pay pilots $10k if they could escape with doing so! The whole point is to avoid altogether another Colgan Air flight 3407!!!

Sorry, flight time is a composition of more than a few things, flying is just one small component, judgement and decision making skill are just a couple of others. Those deep stall guys weren't exactly inexperienced in aviation, but their inexperience was in just the wrong places. Right after the stall/splash event we did similar training, the process was interesting to say the least.
BTW, this job is a blue collar endeavor, of the last few guys I have flown with were a couple were, H.S. Grads with no college experience, they both were some of the better F/Os I have flown with. If it takes 4 years to be a journeyman heavy equipment operator, it follows that being an airline pilot would take at least the same approx time.

Go tell an insurance company that hours don't matter. You got license X, so good 'nuf.