"Actually, the Antiochians didn't accept their orders.
Gilquist along with many colleagues had consecrated each
other as "bishops". They were re-ordained as priests."
Now you see, I made the mistake of believing our own Greek propaganda! I stand corrected!
Literally hundreds were ordained as priests, deacons, subdeacons. The EO's were working under what they perceived to be the ancient tradition, and so each parish had a bishop, and there were many priests and deacons.
The ordination of so many who were unexamined (part of the deal was that whoever was ordained in the EO would get ordained by the Antiochians) was a bit of a scandal in and of itself. There were rush ordinations that took place before their reception by the Antiochians, so men could be ordained, but not have to go through the Antiochian vetting and education process.
The reason there were mass ordinations were that there were simply so many priests and deacons in every one of their parishes. To ordain them all properly would have taken many weeks.
The final icing was that the EO leaders were immediately elevated to being archpriests. I don't know about the Antiochians, but in the Russian tradition, it takes a long time of faithful and outstanding service to be given this recognition. When you meet an archpriest in the Russian tradition, you know that he has been around a long titme and that his bishop trusts him. Particular respect is due them.