If you've got 200 hours it would be a lie to say that you have 800. But if you have 800 it would be true to say that you have 200. With that in mind I think it's reasonable to presume that certain airlines for the aforementioned reasons prefer:
1) 20-year old
2) 200-hour pilots who are
3) fresh out of flight school.
For these reasons a 45 year old or a flight instructor of high hour PPL might be at a disadvantage on paper.
As a long term strategy I recommend doing CBIR SE, MEP and CPL-SE then looking at the market. You can always do the MEIR upgrade and MCC in a couple of weeks if the job market looks bouyant, or you can wait with nothingnothing current.
When it comes to applying you can:
1) have no age or identifying dates on your CV
2) have 200 hours
3) have an MEIR and MCC from last week.