Know what I retroactively loved about the US status match?

I got in when they advertised it for free... I wasn't flying for work at the time.. I flew one trip on them for liesure, remembered how much I didn't like them. Status matched to UA on challenge, got it. Flew 56,000 EQM this year and now 1P. It empowered me to fly! (as did a new job with travel)