Mixed feelings. As an Elite, I feel they have now put some kind of structure in place where before there was none.
But to match up with the Elite procedures they now have, the employee upgrade system is still the wild west. To fix it, they need the computer set up to take in the employee requests, put them in order according to whatever rules they want, and blend them in with the Elites.
I also agree that the culture at AirTran is always bringing employees forward--there is no bringing forward of Elites as you sometimes see on Delta.
I do think it is a policy at AirTran to crack down on the OP's kind of incidents -- making the report was the right thing to do. I have had gate agents at various cities tell me stories of close scrutiny about how they do the upgrades.