Look---I'm a former UA apologist. (Three years of no upgrades as a Gold and UC charging for decent beer changed my perspective.)

In United I see thousands of great people trying to do their jobs well despite constraints imposed by the unions and management.

A big part of consolidation in any industry is reduction in marginal capacity to boost profitability. I'd argue that Metcalfs Law applies in a networked industry: I.e. The value of a network is the number of nodes to the power of the nodes. Southwest aside, airlines operate in hub and spoke structures so it does not directly correlate, but still persists.

When major cities near hub airports, e.g. OAK, SJC, MKE, FLL, FNT, etc. don't have service to other hubs it reduces the value of the overall network.

As well smaller airports have different cache meant regions than the hubs; it really makes no sense to drive from Green Bay to Ohare, while MKE is a viable choice.

The larger question is strategically how does UA view itself: does it leverage a massive domestic network to feed connections globally, does it have a global network with minimum domestic feed, or something else altogether? Based on whatever strategy management chooses it should adjust the organizational structure and route map.

From my perspective management is taking a tactical approach to managing the business which undermines the many strategic strengths that provide momentum forward.