Great post, because this is absolutely not a nit. This kind of thing peeves me as well. However, in their defense, we were trying to get standby on a flight to Vegas - which means the flight was full. But it turned out to be not tons, but a bunch of empty seats. So maybe they really do think it is.

But I'm guessing they just say it when it's pretty much full. Why would they say "there's going to be 9 empty seats", when they can just round up.

I just don't believe them anymore and try to keep an empty middle seat by putting a sweater or something on the seat. I'm probably just as dishonest as them.