The purpose of compensation is for the airline to make up when something goes wrong. It is both an apology and an incentive to induce future business while trying to retain the customer's loyalty. A broken IFE on a one hour flight is quite different than broken IFE on a transcon or TransPac. United should try and recognize this and still make customers satisfied at their apology. It is far easier to keep existing customers than to try and gain new ones.