Alas, AS is not the first to do this. UA has been doing it for at least a year.

I imagine it is easier (especially for outsourced/offshored staff) to just have one blanket rule then a myriad of exceptions and if it affects some folks "unfairly", well that's just too bad and the numbers affected are low enough it's factored into the cost of doing business (i.e. - sometimes pax will book away from your airline to avoid the fee in that case).