So the rumored upside of the changes is true - if you do pay the ransom for premium select, you at least only need Z inventory, bringing Delta metal flights roughly in line with the availability we've already been able to access on AF/KL for years.

That's small consolation for needing to pay 2x or more for an upgradeable ticket, though.

I continue to not understand why they didn't make these same changes but with a single exception - if OY is available, you should have been able to clear from main at booking instead of at T-24h15m. Increased availability for PS would have been an unqualified improvement, and they could still throttle back OY as far as they wanted to avoid giving away seats that might otherwise sell. It would be easy to understand tiered availability from higher cabins, and everyone would have been applauding this decision instead of panic-dumping their entire stash (as I did over the last few days).