You're overthinking and overcomplaining about this IMHO.

You have not shown any loyalty to any of the three FF programs that could let you book those preferred seats for free: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Delta Skymiles, and as of October 27, American AAdvantage. Thus you're not entitled to them.

I have, I am. As have millions of others across those 3 programs. We get more choices of seats than you do. Sorry. We deserve it.

It's as simple as that, and that's exactly how it works on American, Continental (sub. of United Continental Holdings), Delta, United (sub of United Continental Holdings), and US Airways. So does Frontier, in your linked WSJ article. Ascent and Summit members of Frontier EarlyReturns get the good seats.

If you show up at the airport without seat assignments but with a valid ticket and confirmed reservations, you will get a seat on the plane, or you will get voluntarily or involuntarily bumped, and that's always been the way it is. It's entirely possible you will get assigned a seat in that preferred section.

Since AS doesn't sell preferred seats in advance, and there's nothing particularly special about them (other than exit rows) other than being in the front of the cabin, there's no big deal.

Plan your travel and your FF credits more wisely, and you will get 2 free bags, priority boarding, preferred seat selection, and other goodies too. The rules are clear. I don't know what your "not elite but I get around" really means in terms of EQM, but given that with Alaska Airlines' program you can fly AS plus 2 of the 4 other USA network carriers (2 of 5 if still count Continental as distinct from United for a few months), and get those seats and a lot more for only 25,000 flight miles per year. That's not even counting the South American and European carriers that also give EQMs towards AS status. Alaska, American, Delta, LAN, AirFrance/KLM.

I can't imagine that for any given USA domestic or US-Canada itinerary, you can't find a good fare on one of AS' domestic EQM partners and focus your earnings. Given three airlines for a massive North America route map, you should easily be able to get MVP status if you "get around". If you can do all of your flying on Alaska, you only need 20,000 EQM.

And yes, this is entirely fair. You don't show loyalty, you don't get the rewards of loyalty.

I would suggest, seriously, that you look into flying United if you don't fly enough to earn elite on any program. United does sell their preferred seats in advance, sells a $400 or so/year access program to it, sells various other bundles of "elite services for money rather than loyalty", and their preferred seats are Economy Plus (E+ is how we call it here on FT). Their Continental sibling sells their "Extra Legroom" seats (mostly only exits, so fewer than UA's big E+ sections) for the same amount and will be adding E+.

For the less-than-25K/year loyalty traveler, who demands seating access to any unassigned seat in the cabin including those reserved for their most loyal flyers, that is perfect for you. But you do have to PAY for it.