Yeah you're exactly right.
I guess it just comes down to how willing you are to sacrifice your quality of life and happiness and pay in order to advance at the quickest pace toward the goal of "Major Airline pilot" (that you may or may not have crowned god/priority of your life), no matter the cost to self.
That is not an insult to anybody!!! I'm just personally not willing to make my life miserable to accelerate the pace to this "utopia" we imagine major airline flying to be.
But no job is utopia- that's why they are called jobs. Routine becomes, well, routine.
But what is better is the schedule and the pay at the majors, of course.
So, if we were to think like a mathematician the result is this: choosing to impoverish yourself for a period of years in order to advance more quickly to that job that pays well.
Does that add up?
For some it does and for others it doesn't, like you said.
I'm not knocking anyone- it just irritates me that Great Lakes can get away with this unpaid training and $16/hr.
It's the principle of the thing!