I hear ya Luke. It's been a while for me but I hear ya.
Prospector, dont take this as an attack, I'm just interested to know, have you successfully negotiated your way through GA and into an airline in the last 10 years without doing one of those courses that puts you straight in the right hand seat? If you have then congrats on maintaining that sort of attitude, I'm impressed. Your attitude seems a bit idealistic to me, if you follow the road you suggest you end up with a reputation for being a pain in the ass and the regionals soon hear about that.Makes it pretty hard to build hours and progress. I'm not saying that its ok to disregard the rules and regs but with most GA companies it is impossible to stay completely within them. Chaps like Luke cant wait to be in a company that allows them to follow the regs and do their best to comply and operate safely but at the same time are realistic enough, driven enough, to go out and do what they have to do to get where they want to be.
A lot of fun can be had in GA but its still a great feeling to walk away from it . c ya.