Maybe you should just concern yourself with all that international law and stuff...and everything else...you seem to be an expert on.
Indeed. However I was making an allowance for crew who may not work on 14-16 hour sectors. One often makes the mistake of only seeing the world through one's own pond. The 767, for example, in Europe was/is considered a 'Long Haul' aircraft. In QF, it was considered Short Haul.
American Eagle pilots might not get the constant 12 hour time zone changes but they work a lot. My guess was at least 3-4 late nights a week.
Its an interesting point you allude to. Of my course, everyone on the 737 agrees it is a lot less tiring and you are home a lot more. But you are 'in the cockpit' a lot more days. The tiredness is different. You also might not be 'working' when you are away on a 380/744 pattern, but there is not a person at Qf who has not watched endless re-runs of CNN at 0300 when you are wide awake but been desperately tired at 1800 when you desperately need but are unable to sleep for the upcoming 16 hours. The 767 I found the worst, but a lot of people find the ultra long haul worse. Its horses for courses. What I can say is that personally it takes 2-3 days to be able to operate reasonably well after you get home from a long SYD-LHR trip. I will not attempt to talk to anyone or do any domestic things (like fixing squeaky doors or the TV aerial) for that long, because no matter how simple the task, I would invariably break whatever it was I tried to fix. The dog and wife would know to stay away and accept that whatever it was I was playing with would get broken. And god help any bank that called if I am late with a payment. Patience = zero.
You make light of the Law, and I understand where you are coming from, but if you are bored for a month, try to read the Jepp WWT and overlay it with the Aussie regs for any port you might divert to. It helps to know a reasonable amount about the political situation in those places as well and whether they have pavement strengths suitable, parking bays, tugs that can cope with big jets, refuellers/fuel/toilet/food and spares for whatever put you there in the first place. And you also consider the potential for immigration at 0200, hotel accommodation for 400 pax at short notice, medical availability. Things like (and BGA is helping out lot here by reducing the network so efficiently) NEVER being allowed to divert to mainland China if you have blasted out of Taiwan. etc etc etc etc etc.