No, an empty middle seat probably has little practical protection, given the risk from people behind or in front of you - certainly more important is wearing a mask and ensuring a thorough scrubbing of the cabin air with 100% outside-sourced airflow.

However, this is all about saying one thing and doing another while hiding behind the small print. Frontier just got caught doing something low and dirty with their "you need to pay for your empty middle seat", where the reaction was so negative and fierce, they had to step back. This is not the time to be playing tricks with customers - first United did it with a rapidly shifting refund policy which is still being unevenly enforced, and now we have yet another anti-customer fiasco with the not-empty-middle seat where people are posting photos online with very negative comments.

It's just more tone-deaf disinterest from Kirby and clear evidence about where his priorities are, vs the customer-forward policies and communication style of Delta and its greater transparency. Running a service business is not about metrics, it's about taking care of customers, employees and showing authenticity, especially when tensions are high.