1) Everyone can choose a set when they book -even the person who *never* flies united can choose their seat. And for a lousy $25 they get the best seats in the plane. For me that means that i have *never* experienced a economy plus seat.
I'm sorry but I don't buy this for a second. I've been a 1P for years and I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to sit in E-, even with last minute ticket purchases out of a busy UA hub.
In fact, last week I deliberately chose an E- seat in order to sit next to a non-status friend and the GA caught it while we were boarding and moved both of us up to E+ right there in line. ^^