Okay, I've read all six pages of this thread, and I must admit I'm a little baffled by what UA is gaining through this competition. Like an earlier poster, I can imagine some spouses picking up additional flights and they may attract the business of a few new corporate hires, but otherwise, it mainly rewards people who (by coincidence) will be doing exceedingly much more travelling in this year than last, rather than really encouraging a change of habits. It certainly does NOT reward their loyal customers or encourage people who fly a lot to fly more. It seems like they may well be rewarding people who were already going to fly a lot with them already because of life circumstance. And although I know miles are not money, it does seem like UA is making a pretty hefty investment in the prize pool.
For what it's worth I made 2P on segments with about 24K in EQMs last year, and expect to have about 40K this year (a few factors could give me a shot at 1P on segments but probably not) so I don't think I'm an attractive teammate.