Yes. The blanket pay to reserve for those without the necessary status, or who are holding Business Lite or Classic fares comes off 72 hours before,. Go to Manage my Booking from 72 hours before and you will see the seat maps but with no reservation fee. I've only done it with Business Classic R fares when I was Silver but I presume it applies to all other fares for which there is a reservation fee and the passenger lacks the necessary status or willingness to pay the reservation fee.

I've only experienced random allocation once, it was when I was Silver and it was a Q Suites flight. All of the window seats were taken 72 hours before. I was travelling solo, so they opened up the middle section and I was allocated a seat in one of those rows.