Perception has a lot to do with it. A young person out of school choosing a career could see a way to get enough time to be acceptable to an airline, could maybe get the CFI job, a stint flying pipelines, maybe working with a small 135 company for a while, then finally knocking on the door of the dream job with a regional airline.
Now they arbitrarily added over 1000 hours to the dross part. How long to get that extra? Years and years. Meanwhile wanting to pay off the huge debt. No guarantee of a job either, what have those youngsters been doing? Judging by the training statistics, they have not been choosing flying as a career.
Whatever the reason, and I still say that the rule change was a major one, regional carriers cannot find pilots. Look at their ads, what they are offering for the small supply available now.
How you can deny the obvious facts I don't know. What will it take before the industry wakes up?