Doesn't make sense to "reward the loyalty" of using your miles. I am sure they would rather you just let them expire and never redeem them. Why incentivize a passenger to use incremental resources for no addl revenue. The flight itself is the reward for previous revenue.

To do so would be to incentivize some people with too much time on their hands to book circuitous routings, using even more resources, displacing more revenue, for zero gain. Not really a wise business decision, but I can understand why you would want more free miles for no addl cost to you or benefit to the airline.

Bniu, I don't speak for UA, but I bet they view standard awards as a net negative, but one they need to do to stay competitive. There is no capacity control, so most standard awards displace real revenue, and that might even be the person on the standard award. If you can't use miles, you either a) fly on someone else, or b) pay real $$.