There's two different things going on...
Comparing Regionals to Regionals (both in terms of contract/QOL and should they be flying the size/type of airplane they have) and Regionals to Majors.
You can compare your plane's girth all day long. What ever. Who cares. Fact is, long ago, the mainline pilots let go of scope and we now have 86 seat jets and 76 seat props running around flown by regional feed. Just because it has props on the side (or engines under the wing) doesn't make it right. But, as I said, as far as that goes, with the exception of places like Great Lakes, CommuteAir (and Colgan until they started the Q ops) and such, everybody is just as guilty of "taking" mainline flying.
But to then compare a regional to a major? Eh, it ain't happening. Because guess what... you don't own your flying. All you can do is ##### yourself out enough that a major agrees to pay for your gas and let you tattoo their name on your side (with an EXPRESS or CONNECTION after it). And then you've got to pray to what ever deity, sports hero or talk show host you pray to that nobody else comes along and offers to do it for less. Because then, even all the company koolaid you can find isn't going to save you. At least at a mainline carrier the only way your flying is going away is if you give up MORE scope or the company starts shrinking.
