[mech1234]

A race to the bottom seems like it is a pretty good thing in this case.

People are reasonably well-informed of the difference between the different levels of seating. To pretend otherwise is to claim ignorance of how many up-sell screens every airline tries to push in front of you during ticket purchase. Seating information is built-in to the ticket purchase process, and there are also third-party websites available just for the purpose of telling you about seating.

"Premium economy" tickets still cost less than the cheapest tickets did in the past.