Re: OP. Well, I made good on giving the legacies much less business now that they give so few RDMs on lower fares that airlines like Frontier arguably have more-generous programs now. So I haven't been in many apples-to-apples situations where I get the pauper treatment from them.

OTOH, status definitely means something different on an airline like Frontier, where the "perks" mostly bring you up to the service level on legacies, though you do get to board with the pre-boards IF the GA remembers that that's the procedure. There's also no first class, though the "stretch" seats DO save your knees.

I don't HAVE to have all the perks I used to get and some, like the free booze, would be very bad for me at this point anyway.

OTOH I DO find that the typical flying experience these days is pretty bad and that certain buffers are useful and helpful to reduce the stress and keep the inexperienced travelers from having to suffer from mistakes or general faux-pas from the inexperienced ones.

The TSA Pre-Check, for example, is becoming almost a must to jump the long lines from people who overpacked and don't know the rules there. Early boarding is important mainly to avoid the bin battles, even when you didn't bring too much but others did (this is less a factor, BTW, on airlines like Frontier and Spirit that charge for carry-ons).

Being able to pre-select an exit row seat for free means you won't get kids next to you, though sometimes large individuals try to seat there thinking it helps with width when it only helps with height (immovable armrests discourage some of this, though). You also *might* avoid the families in the front rows with seats that have to be paid for if you don't have status, but there's no guarantee.

The inexperienced travelers are often none the wiser about what a cattle-car experience it is and how it's so much worse than 30-40 years ago and how they contribute to that, so it's really BECAUSE of all your experience that you can notice all that stuff and want to prevent or avoid it.