My argument never changed If you intend to pick your seat, get the ticket that lets you. If you don't care about your seat then get the ticket that gives you the OPTION to pay more to pick. The reason I didn't consider basic economy is because we are talking about picking a seat. Basic exists for people that don't care and don't have two bags or their second bag is a checked size anyway. Sure you can save money, but once you start adding on to the restrictions, then there is no point in basic.

Do me a favor. Read about the restrictions for basic economy, then book a ticket with basic, picking a seat, a checked bag (that is the size of a carry on), then get priority boarding. Check how much that costs vs just getting the economy ticket and having that part of it. Priority boarding because United boards window, middle, aisle. So a basic is group 6 and a chosen window is group 3. Priority is 2, but hardly makes a difference.