My feeling is that flying as a kettle has become so unbearable that the value of silver has become quite high. I really can't complain about E+ availability, but maybe that's because I'm accustomed to just looking at it as a boon if I can grab any at check-in. Boarding group 3 (aka not fighting to the death for bin space) is where the real value is for silvers, and that's not saying much.

FWIW, I think they should rename silver "kettle+" since that's really all it is. Or perhaps a vision of how civilized the entry-level air travel experience used to be.