They could make it fair for everyone by having advance seat selection only for elites, no paid option (so no one feels they’re being gouged), and non elites just allocated whatever at check in

i’m reasonably confident that wouldn’t stop people complaining though 😉

qantas doesn’t charge for seat assignments in business. What it does instead is block so much of the cabin for elites that it’s basically pointless trying to select a seat before time anyway