This hasn't been touched on explicitly that much in the however many hundred posts in this thread, but a question worth thinking about. My guess is that there wasn't anything inherently wrong with 1Ks getting 8 CR-1s. The bigger deal was that if CO gave out 8 CR-1s, their revenue model would break. Too many plats that would normally buy YBM fares to get the confirmed upgrade would now just buy the cheapest fare and upgrade. Four RTs per plat where you lost several hundred dollars of revenue would be a problem. But they couldn't take CR-1s away completely, so this is how they made the compromise.