The entire boarding process is a sham. At least a "Shambles". They need advanced seat selection and they need to dump the t24 thing.
But yes, EBCI is a bit of a rip off. I have always considered it a situation in which WN created a problem (line anxiety, t24 anxiety) and then sold the cure for the problem it created. EBCI makes no promises about being in the A group..it is possible to end up in B or theorhetically C. The problem is bigger than thru-pax.
Compounding the problem is that the FA's and WN in general make no effort to protect the integrity of the EBCI program. If you sell a higher revenue product, you must protect that product from devaluation by rule breakers. If they sell EBCI they MUST 1: enforce boarding order and 2: Forbid seat saving. Otherwise you pay 10 dollars and get no benefit from it because A47 lines up with her hubby at A23, and you get to 11C and someone is "saving" those seats for their C group companion and the FA refuses to take a side on the matter.
Their rewards program is sub-par, and offers very little to the FF'er except a few free coach tics sometimes. Pales in comparison to even the worst domestic F class, despite what people say about domestic F class.