Good points, however, most reputable Airlines in Europe work according the same principals of hiring "personality" in the first place, flying skills come after. Lufthansa's initial 3-5 day assesment for example is build to test everything but flying skills.
It makes absolute sense in a multi-crew environment and after a couple thousand hours jet-time, one can pretty much assume, that you are able to fly that airplane safely. Besides that, I've never met a "bad" CRJ pilot.
O'Boy, good luck to you (I'm in the same boat, JAA ATPL B747-400 and CRJ, 4300 ttl 3000jet and US FAA ATP and Greencard). Have been looking for 10 month now. Yap, there is a lot of qualified guys in the US, especially after 9/11. Try Comair, they are planning to hire a lot of guys this year. Good Luck !!