Major airline managements have never understood the regional airline environment. Fourty years ago ANSW tried to replace F27 with F28 on high yield, regulated and sole operator routes in NSW. The experiment failed and F27s returned to fly these services for many subsequent years.
Regional airline pundits knew from day one that Embraers would not be competitive against high frequency more efficient Saab340 and Dash 8 turboprop services.
The world is full of dreamers who fail to study their markets, their competition and the operating economics of operating jet aircraft over regional routes that offer little utililisation outside AM and PM peak travel times.