ThatT1Feeling Of course I can't give anything except an objective opinion but I think that there's probably a psychological aspect of a middle seat on it's own being far less attractive to someone than 2 seats together. When I've booked for groups of us on EZY then I often use the A,C,D,F tactic ( paying to select said seats in a row( s)and even with them randomly assigning seats it's paid off more times than it hasn't ( I appreciate BA & EZY use very different seating systems). Whilst I can't say it will always work it's, imho a better tactic if you're looking to keep seats free & might be worth a try next time.

I take onboard that you weren't implying expectation of seats remaining free & totally get your point about social distancing.