One of the benefits of going from RHS long haul to LHS short haul is that you now have to do 'the captain thing', all the decisions, flight management etc. about four times a day, so in very short order both your management skills and you handling skills are up to speed, add to that you will now be operating within the range of a short haul operation so if based in Europe you can forget about hurricanes, typhoons and Monsoons for a while, not that a European winter can't be very taxing too.
I believe Swiss Air used to require F/O DC9, then DC10 then B747 before first command on the DC9 and so back up the ladder.