Yup, I get it. All the points above are well made.

Interestingly, I just made a Marriott reservation today using a free-night certificate. They don't use the concept of buckets of availability. If the hotel, has a room, you can use the cert. There is a simplicity and elegance to that type of system. I think I would prefer fewer UA instruments, with lower barriers to usage, than what we have today, but that's a discussion for another day...