You can do amazing things in a turboprop, 1:1 decents, barbers pole at 5nm and land with a stabilized approach.
None of those things can be done in an ATR however. Its a very different beast to a Dash.
The thing that makes this idea crazy (yes i know qantarse did it before) is that the cadets will be sent to a differnt company for a very short period of time-leading to 'stuff this, ill be on a jet in 2 years time'. Where does that leave the Captains of Skywest who have to fly with this attitude in the RHS?