Again, it is the perception. A youngster sees 1000 hours of more time needed to meet the requirements for a job in the Regionals (minimum legal was 500). When s/he is looking at a career this is a big hurdle.
Based on what is actually happening with flight training and with the shortage of pilots as shown by the efforts that the Regionals are presently making to attract qualified pilots to fill the many vacancies, too many young people are turning away from aviation as a career.
Many pilots are simply not qualified or willing to move out of the Sleds anyway. They are quite happy to be home every night and they are not ambitious for moving into airline work. Many pilots do not even want that much and fly for the love of flight or convenience. We need thousands of private pilots to support hundreds of commercial pilots and hundreds of commercial pilots to support a few ATPs. If the base is weak so too will be the peak of the pyramid.
If there were plenty of qualified pilots looking for work, as was the case for a long time and is a sign of a healthy industry, the Regionals (and Part 135) would not be hurting.
I am sure you are right that it was perfectly doable 5 years ago, before the new FAA rule, but you have to admit that if the old rule was still in effect, all the Regionals would have to do is take pilots with 800 hours or 500 hours. Then there would be no shortage.
It is simple mathematics, simple logic but for some reason you and your buddies already in the system do not accept it.