Here's a guess: perhaps there is truly a 1K queue and some number of 1K agents. When all of these 1K agents are busy, perhaps UA has decided that it's more important to get the 1K caller to a live agent, even a *G agent, rather than having them hang on the line.

I base this on:
(a) I always get answered quickly calling the 1K number
(b) sometimes I get a person answering "1K desk" and sometimes "Premier desk".

Just a guess though...

I have about a ~5% record of the 1K line actually answering as "1K desk"

Last time I called in I was informed it as the Gold Desk due to customer load up front. Well done, UA.

The person there dealt with my issue like I was GS as far as I was concerned..

This encapsulates the conclusion I've come to. Gold is worth having. Nothing more is worth the effort. If one must fly more, might as well keep the miles together, and get more status. But, actively trying to attain more than Gold seems like a fools game under this regime.

But you're perhaps forgetting about upgrades. Having a minimum 1K is required to play on hub-to-hub-routes it seems.

This is a carefully considered conclusion and it doesn't seem I have forgotten anything important.

It's well documented here that 1K is worthless for hub-hub upgrades. Indeed, this 1K hasn't have a single hub-hub upgrade under the $mi$ek regime that wasn't paid for with an earned instrument, and even those are hard.

CPUs are dead. It's just taking a while for some people to realize that.

My point is this - the marginal upgrade benefit given to 1Ks has shrunk enormously since the $mi$ek regime deployed SHARES and started using it to achieve their strategic aims.

Now, the 1K is fighting against kettles who get into F on TODs, fighting against everyone easily redeeming miles for F space, fighting against system failures that prevent them from clearing when they should, fighting against reduced RPU earning rates, fighting against indifferent or downright hostile CSRs and GAs.

Yes, the 1K gets more UGs than a Gold member. But, at what price? Is it worth it anymore?

Don't loose track of what I said in my post. If someone must fly, then by all means, fly with your chosen airline/alliance and enjoy the marginal benefits of the status. You're flying anyway, so you might as well maximize what you can get in return for that.

But, if there's any discretion in one's travel plans, it no longer makes sense to invest in earning 1K. It's just not worth it.

I do not think so (at least not yet in the mail so far IME)