A more likely scenario of crew being out of position (or exceeding duty/travel time, and insufficient rest) would most likely result in a cancelled flight, and that would be relatively expensive for the airline.

The cost of involuntarily bumping 4 passengers ($800+ x 4) assuming no further incident, rapidly approached any benefit from not cancelling (or delaying) the morning flight. Total revenue for the regional flight would likely be less than $10,000.