Focus on Corporate
UA's clearly-stated strategy is to focus on large corporate accounts. While those fares are discounted, they also include a good deal of paid intl. F/C and other extremely lucrative sources of cash.
If OP doesn't like the fare he's offered, he shouldn't accept it and will need to seek alternatives or not fly. If he's joined by enough people, maybe UA (and others) will relent or go belly up.
UA is betting that the steady corporate revenue will beat the occasional leisure traveler or jumps ship to KettleAir, and UA's bets are likely the result of serious market research. Not that research isn't sometimes wrong. But, here what UA is doing does seem to make sense.