Who would pay those big bucks to get the ATP? Not many, that is for sure and that is why the military route is best——not only do they pay you to learn how to fly, they pay you well to build hours and experience to make you very competitive for the majors.
The safety rule, as I pointed out, was to say, yes, 1500hrs is good but unless you have an ATP, not good enough.
The question then is; do you want to hire people that are good or those that are the best? The airline industry is not the only place where increased standards and certifications are becoming necessary, and in the case of the commuter airline, one has to consider the affect of lawsuits on their survival. You hire someone that has a commercial and pass over an ATP, and then a mishap occurs then you are facing a hostile court (and court of public opinion) that askes—why didn't you require your pilots to be as proficient and capable as any other airline?
“do you want to hire people that are good or those that are the best?”
I want to hire folks who do a good job at a marketable price. My dentist is not the finest. Under TRICARE, I haven’t seen an actual doctor since I retired...and since the base is shorthanded, even the PA I used to sometimes see has been replaced by a nurse (?) on the other end of a phone. The drivers in the cars around me could kill me, yet they have minimal skills. Most have never had any advanced driver training at a racing school, for example. I ride horses, and my horses were neither bred nor trained by the best to be the best, yet a bolting horse could kill me just as thoroughly as any airline pilot.
In most things, we expose ourselves to some level of danger and accept we are not getting the best. Since the old pilot standards had already resulted in an incredible safety record, why did we need to tighten it to the point almost no one can afford to learn to fly?