You may appreciate it, but I don't see a justification for why it should exist. The fact that you pay extra for last minute tickets is neither here nor there in terms of whether that should buy you the preferred seat, and the fact that you have status has nothing to do with the fact that you purchase last minute. (and, in fact, if someone else with status booked 1 month early, they'd be more likely to get that seat than you). I say this as someone who has flown on <24h notice internationally and domestically multiple times in the past year. (and of course these last minute fares can often be rock-bottom cheap, it all depends).

I understand what you're saying, but the mileage programs are not really about "loyalty"; they're about misallocating corporate dollars to more expensive seats to the benefit of the airline and the traveller/employee. I don't feel that people like you providing "the majority of revenue" to airlines should really matter either way. Dollars for seats.

I managed to just cross a mileage program threshold this year but I'll continue ranting about how terrible these programs and the flying experience in general is. Especially because having bargain-basement status on United means nothing when you're flying out of a major hub :)