The problem is that Saver (25k) award seats are too difficult to redeem in the first place. My friend has earned 28k miles in UAL. She is trying to book an award ticket for a heavily flown direct route (ORD-SMF) and she is doing it 3 months in advance.

Are there any Saver (25k) awards seats available? No. 0 outbound flights available and 1 return flight (the red-eye) which nobody wants.

Are there Standard (40k) award seats available? You betcha...every flight on both days is available for 40k miles.

I understand your argument that people would take advantage by pooling up "orphaned" miles, but that is definitely not the case here. I am just trying to gift her 12k miles so she can reach the 40k miles she needs since UA won't provide her a 25k ticket. Again, it costs UA $0 to provide this service. UA is penalizimg everybody to protect itself from the rogue mileage horders you mentioned...