It's not as if physical distancing means that if you're closer than 6ft to another person you're guaranteed to get COVID-19 and get terribly sick (or worse),
and if you're further than 6ft from another person you will be 100% safe.
Since we're all wearing masks nowadays, the idea is to keep as far away as possible, under the circumstance.

Having the middle seat unoccupied seems like a good solution for a few reasons:
- less crowding in gate area
- less crowding while boarding
- less close proximity while placing bags in overhead
- spread of viral load from an infected person is likely going to be considerably less if the other persons are one to two feet further away

Having the middle seat unoccupied seems like a good solution and United promoted that idea.
I'd rather UA flew at ~70% occupancy, and keep the middle seat open. This seems like a good compromise.

It can't be as financially devastating as not flying at all, or only flying with cargo, surely?