Impractical? Because it hurt an exceedingly rare baggage-free international passenger in this case? They probably could have resolved such rare issue at the gate by down-grading an op-upgrader and VDB'ing someone. But for hundreds of other passengers who miss their connections daily, its a God-send to have that AC app light up with a "You've been automatically rebooked" message. Rather than trying to mess around with the more usual processes.