Wiz, I agree, the FAA is not the salvation army. But the current limits are under pressure NOT from the FAA, but from the NTSB and the senat, as both have to respond to findings published about recent accidents. The FAA is on the receiving end here, therfore more prone to shove the same up any other rear end, to save face.
The limits you pasted are for domestic operations, by the way, so not comparable.
I truly consent with the sign on scam. It's a half an hour before and the same after the flight that we are cheated out. Sum this up with the number of check-ins and we get a lot of hours more. Additionally EK never counts hours in the sim and a lot of airlines credit classroom hours as well.
I am pretty sure that we work more hours, all in all, than our counterparts in the USA, EU or AU.