As another addition. I will only book a bulkhead seat in WT+/PE. And in the past would only book a Y exit row for long haul. If it was opened up free of charge at booking for everyone then these would be gone for almost every flight (I cant organise a tip for business 6 months in advance).
I would therefore, search other airlines/FF programs and probably jump ship. Or do what I did on my last three flights (CX, CX, and QR because the EDI DOH flight was empty so anywhere in Y was good). All this would be a loss to BA of my annual flying budget (£30k+).