The FAA could pull WN's operating certificate. They probably won't, but they absolutely could if they felt they weren't serving the public good.

There has to be some kind of consequences for massively screwing over hundreds of thousands of flyers. And even if you're selfish enough to believe it's the flyer's fault for not rebooking, there's no way there's enough lift on other carriers for people to actually do that. Best case, you end up with tons of people stuck at home (massive loss for the travel industry) and others stranded places they don't want to be (also a huge loss).

Why exactly does having a well-regulated market system where companies that are terrible at delivering their service get penalized for it by having to make their customers whole seem like socialism to somebody? Do you just not know what socialism is, or are you trying to troll a serious discussion? Please just stop.