I agree with your comments and also your understanding of the broader viewpoint Ralph the Bong.
Could it be that these large corporations have too many bean counters intent on wrestling the last cent out of operations by decreasing the value of the people 'most' important to an air carrier?
And I suppose a naive view would be that any decrease in the availability of aircrew would improve the T's & C's for qualified applicants which is obviously not occurring as these operators are looking at other alternatives (cheap).