Your experience seems unusual to me. I missed 8 of 43 upgradeable segments as plat last year, and 3 of those were MSP-DCA or DCA-MSP. Other than LAX, it's the airport I have the worst upgrade track record with.

I attribute the low upgrade rate to the presence of two (one?) air marshall on every flight, reducing F inventory. Not sure if that is true any more. I also do a poor job flying in off peak hours.

I still prefer to fly coach into DCA vs F to IAD or BWI. It may be my favorite airport, due to convenient location, small size, presence of WC, ease of access to rental car lot.... many things keep me chosing it over the others. BWI's stock was rising, but the ice storm a couple weeks ago brought the karma score down a notch.