It absolutely shouldn’t be allowed to die. VIP privileges or not. And the government if required has to step in from time to time to save AI over 9W and others. I see nothing wrong in that.
It’s the bureaucrats running an airline that’s the bigger issue. Governments can’t & shouldn’t run airlines because they know only one way of doing things in a bloated, super-duper inefficient, unplanned & un-strategic manner and the airlines‘ business is a extremely unforgiving.