I would think that's more the result of the move to automatically add everyone down to Gold to the upgrade list.
Well then all things being equal I don't or haven't seen lists like that anywhere else.
Anyway the boarding area at DTW was chaos. Group 1 must have been 50 people and I heard people talking to each other with sayings like "what is going on here? I'm #14! I used to always get an upgrade on this flight" and "No I didn't get an upgrade and I'm 6 on the upgrade list. First time for that, wow". Clearly elite members are seeing the app buy up in action.