As far as I can tell, only long-term good has come from the 1500 Hour/ATP rule. I'm not worried about the sim ride thing at all, as if the airlines are this desperate there is no way I'm going to pay 100% out of pocket for that by the time I get to 121 quals. Would all the people in my shoes who are crying for 250TT mins to fly a shiny jet around like the $19/hr wages and pre-117 rest rules to come back too? Now all the regionals have the same minimums more or less, the crappy one's will have to pay more to make up for the QOL to still bring in applicants. That's already what we're seeing, right? Yet I hear nothing but whining from the guys working on their ratings I come across about how hard it's all gotten. Hard. Sure. Get your first time building job buzzing around with foreflight or CFI up to 1500 hours then have a realistic chance of getting hired at your airline of choice where you may easily end up flying 4 hour legs monitoring autopilot from MSP-SFO. Versus back in the day where guys would move across the country doing crap jobs away from home with no cellphones or interweb to keep up with their loved ones, then move on to be doing 6-8 legs at the commuters with no autopilot, flight director, flight attendants, and sometimes trim for pennies on the dollar for years until they were hopefully picked up by a major.
This job is getting better and better. Shut up, and just thank the people who are there for making it what it has become for the 121 pilots of tomorrow.