Remember that prior to about 1996 the regionals didn’t fly anything bigger than 37 seat Dash-8s. There were hundreds of J31s, Metros, 1900s, Shorts 330/360, Saab 340, Dash 8s, and Brasillias. But everything bigger than that was flown by mainline - and certainly every jet. (Yes, I know that United Feeder Service flew the ATP which was a big airplane, and Air Wisconsin had the BAE146 for a while, but stay with me here)
The Fokker 28 at 65 seats? Mainline
The Fokker 100 at 85 seats? Mainline
The Bac 1-11 at 85 seats? Mainline
The DC9-10 at 85 seats? Mainline
The DC9-30 at 100 seats? Mainline
The 737-200 at 100 seats? Mainline
The RJ85..
etc…
All mainline airplanes, flown by mainline pilots, with mainline compensation, work rules, benefits, and retirement.
Imagine if we had never scoped out RJs how many MORE mainline jobs there would be… how many of those pilots who were furloughed twice during the lost decade might have been furloughed once or not at all.
Mainline will be just fine if they absorb the RJ flying again. And if we are smart, we will acknowledge the fantastic opportunity we just had to put the toothpaste back in the tube and NEVER let small jet flying our of our scope again at ANY price.