Matt W, more time in general aviation is definitely good experience for airlines. However the 1500-hour rule is not a good way to accomplish that. Buzzing around in a 150 for 1500 hours is a waste: 80% of the experience is gained in the first 400 hours.
To redesign the rule, I would say 1500 hours total time OR some combination of solo >100nm cross-country instrument time, tailwheel time, turbine time, helicopter time, actual IMC time, high performance/complex etc. The way to build ‘captaincy’ and hand flying skills is to do as much challenging flying as possible, preferably solo.
1500 hours of banner towing would be beneficial, but nowhere near as good as 300 hours of hard IFR solo with no autopilot. The rule should reflect that some experience is way more valuable than others.
The biggest downside of the rule is that smart kids will look at that 1500 hurdle and decide (sensibly) to go with another career. So we’ll end up with a shrinking talent pool which eventually will mean worse pilots throughout the system.