I’m sorry it didn’t work out in your first round of trying, but it’s great you’ve made the commuting work and I hope you get a shot at the majors again when you want to go back.
I have another year or more to wait for my GC so I’m going to continue to try and tick off as many of the hiring boxes for now. Then when the GC comes through I can move, get some 121 time and attend a few job fairs. I had hoped not to spend more than 6 months to a year at a regional/LCC (in the current hiring climate) but it seems from your’s and other’s posts that this plan might be too ambitious.
All the best