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Not all of that is true "blockage". It's been going on for many years at AA, but only in those caess where you're trying to book a cabin that's "oversold". They're willing to sell more tickets (perhaps because a cabin above is not oversold, and they know they'll "roll" some people into there), but they're not wiling to give away more tickets as awards.

And, for example, AA is not solving this by blocking "standard" awards, it's solving it by making them sometimes cost more than double. But that's still "every seat is any award seat", if it simply takes more miles than just 2x, right?

But rhe ratios between the cheapest award on Southwest and the most expensive award on Southwest are much more than 2:1, much more than 3:1, much more then 4:1, even more than 5:1, I'm not sure where they top out (between the lowest WGA redemption on a flight and when there's only last-minute BS redemptions left). I think it'll take a long time for the miles-based programs to catch up to that ratio, and in any case, their concept of higher ratios is based only on dates (with expected high demand), not how few seats are left (which is what Southwest bases higher redemption costs on).

The main reasons that people don't look at "standard" (or "top tier") awards the same as Southwest's redemptions is analogous to how a slowly boiled frog dies of overheat while a frog thrown into boiling water jumps out. Southwest makes it seem like it's "just a bit more" to redeem as things sell out gradually, while the miles-based airlines have a clear jump from "saver" to "standard" cost. Plus the advertising (especially on credit cards) from the legacies touts only the "saver" level as being what's needed for a flight, while Southwest fairly conservatively calls 50000 points as being enough for 2 round-trip flights (it could be enough for at least 5, though it might not be enough for even 2 in all cases, especially last-minute cases).