DL’s so hooked to Amex and more or less selling elite status level shortcuts/jumps to big Amex card spenders that at DL hubs there are a lot of economy class-flying DL SkyPriority elites who seem to be more like infrequent flyers than frequent flyers at times. This frequent-spenders-trump-frequent-flyers dynamic has become more pronounced with the post-pandemic travel boom and the crazy amount of DL Amex card spending. So maybe this “wait and know your place thing” at check-in is DL’s way to try to retain a premium service experience for the premium cabin peeps while keeping the rest of us waiting and putting up with downgraded service levels.