This. 100%. I had a similar experience as a young child in the late-80s/early-90s. It didn't require a 2020s-era "technology improvement" to make it happen. UA is clearly just trying to get ahead of regulations and spin the move into a positive PR stunt.

Not so long ago, it was taken for granted that one would not be subject to forced separation from their family, friends, and associates. The airlines have taken basic human dignities and commoditized them. In so doing, they actually succeeded in turning passengers against each other. Here we are, having actual dialogue about whether a family is being cheap because they didn't pay their airline-imposed "family tax" of $40, $50, $60+ per seat/ticket. Even just 20 years ago, it would have caused an uproar if an airline separated a parent from his nine-year-old daughter and made her sit 10 rows away, straddled on either side by two total strangers. The airline would have been lambasted in the media, labeled extortionists, accused of holding a parent's right to protect and supervise his child hostage to the almighty dollar. Today? So common it has necessitated government intervention.

Sorry UA, I see right through this one. You would charge just to sit down or to use the restroom if you thought you could get away with it. /rant