"I recently saw a Chinese carrier exit AUS with 2 Captains & 2 FO's.
So your point about QF carrying an SO is what?"
A local CA crew of 2 caps and 2 fos would cost the airline in the ballpark of 240k USD per annum for the 4. Swap one local cap with a foreign cap and the number goes up to roughly 320k USD, maybe a little more, for the 4 bodies.