No I think there is better explanation.
Its 4 pm. You've been on the road since 7 am going to Walt Disney World. You have a wife, and three kids in the car under 8. Your wife just gave you "I'm hangry" look (angry/hungry combined). There's an exit ahead, and on the left is a TGIF Fridays, a McDonalds, and a Taco Bell. On the right is a local place?"Mom's Diner"?.with plenty of cars in the lot. Where do you stop to eat?
Now--if you were solo--you might be adventurous, but most of you would probably say "?with kids I'd go to Mickey Ds or a known joint?" Doing that, you might miss out on the best chicken fried steak or coconut pie you ever ate. Or you might miss out on a horrible case of the screaming ********************s seventy miles down the road. Being pragmatic, and understanding that Wally World, not food, is the goal you hedge your bets...
Airlines do the same thing. Military guys are McDonalds. We are known, measured, and predictable. Are we the best culinary delight on the road? Probably not. And the fact is about 90% of my fellow fighter brethren struggle in their first few sims at the airline because they can't land in a crosswind with a slip technique, still learning the lingo, etc etc. Yet they get hired. How come? They are Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, and the known product, and they will work (eventually) pretty darn well to fill the need. The regionals like Skywest, ASA, Exp Jet, Pinnacle, etc during the late 90s and 2000s became a somewhat similar homogenized product.
You 135 guys? Dunno. Some of you are awesome. Some of you are terrible. How does the airline figure it out? What if they are wrong? So--overall--sticking with the known eliminates some risk. Again--I'm not hear to rack and stack your talent?most of you probably fly more GPS approaches and have been into more places than I have. My ability to time out a shot on a bandit with an Aim-120 while killing another at the merge with an Aim-9 doesn't really help a whole lot when I am flying the Civet into LAX. But--the airlines know what they get with me--where I will do well and where I will suck and need extra effort. Its that KNOWN factor that makes the puppy mills and military so appealing to the majors.
Not justifying it?just explaining how I think the voodoo works?.
Not saying the mil guys are superior to regional pilots, but there is a uniformity of a standard product that makes hiring people comfortable. Almost anyone can get hired at a regional, not everyone can get a slot in a military cockpit.