The USA 1500 rule was touted as lifting standards in the cockpit. This wasn't necessarily true. What it was about was improvements to pay and work rules. A 200 hour fresh CPL will work for next to nothing to fly a jet. With 1500 hours they value their experience and expect a more than $1600 a month to live on (the FO wages at the time). You also can't live in most US major cities on that money so people lived at home and commuted to work on jumpseats and slept in crew rooms because they couldn't afford a hotel for a day off between trips.
And judging by pay and contracts now it seems to have worked.