If you look at the composition of the 744 fleet it is obvious that upgrades aren't needed on the pax fleet because they are taken care of by cheap commands on the freighter fleet. As the 744 comes off pax and goes freighter there is a cheap captain on the freighter fleet ready to fly it. The 744 proper captain does a 777 course and everything is taken care of.
Anyone who took a freighter command and a 50% pay cut to jump seniority and to show the company just how little we are prepared to work for will also obviously have their time to pax command and pax pay delayed.
We should be thankful to all involved in negotiations that that avenue has closed.