This is all basically correct. However, there are some supplementary bits of information that may be important too. At the beginning of the pandemic when demand

This is all basically correct. However, there are some supplementary bits of information that may be important too. At the beginning of the pandemic when demand dropped to virtually zero, they also paid older pilots to retire early. Additionally, it didn’t used to take that long to get a pilot’s license. Before 2013 you could obtain a license in 250 hours. This changed due to a law passed by congress that increased flight training time to 1500 hours in reaction to a commercial accident that occurred in 2009. The irony? The pilots of that crash both had far more than 1500 hours of experience. It was a sympathy play. Short-term profits and poor regulatory strategy led to this.