Thanks for the insight Missy - I have a question for you, but first, background:
Recently on a flight, I did not get upgraded to First and was in my exit row seat. My colleague had booked in a higher fare and had a confirmed upgrade. Now, there were two seats open in First class, and he heard the FAs wondering who should get them, since there were 10 MPVGs sitting in coach. He suggested they pick me, and they actually came over...Unfortunately, I was taking a nap, so they moved to the next person.

I was at the gate for my return flight - another flight was boarding, and I heard the folks outside talk about 1 seat open in First, and them talking about picking the MVPG that was sitting the closest in coach!

Now the question: When does the request queue disappear/become irrelevant??
I would have thought that they would know when the tickets were purchased, the fare class, etc, and pick 2 MPVGs who came first on the list....I thought AS was pretty sophisticated, but not as much as I thought I guess....oh well.