Fully sympathise Tricia however when you joined it was very likely there were bidders senior to you who were denied their move to Long Haul because it was cheaper to employ Direct Entry Pilots and only pay for one course, rather than two. To the vast majority of Short Haul Pilots in the RHS, Long Haul is seen as the golden ticket, granted it wasn’t in your circumstances but I would suggest that’s fairly rare.
Given that this has been happening for the last few years (and has happened in British Airways for a long time now) it should be of no surprise to you that BA are now using the same rule set to give junior commands to those who are rated to reduce their training costs. I post this point of view as someone who wanted long haul but didn’t get it, why should people like me not now benefit from being rated on type - BA have clearly shown precedent - if they want to gain their command? (I don’t BTW)