United status isn't turning out to be worth much for me

At the end of last year, I took a new job, which significantly increased my travel. I've already hit Gold this year and am on track to hit Platinum by the end of the year. I'm finding United status to be worth little, and most of the benefits I can actually use would come with only Silver or getting a United credit card. I doubt I will ever see a CPU even if I keep this status for years, but that's not why I'm unhappy. I can rarely even get an Economy Plus seat. I insist on an aisle seat, and those are rarely available in Economy Plus on cross-country flights.

I'm particularly salty today since I'm traveling cross-country on Thursday on vacation, and I had reserved Economy Plus seats, but this morning, I got a text saying equipment change, and I've been downgraded. United should implement a system where passengers who lose a premium seat due to an equipment change get 1st priority to get it back if any seat opens up. I'm going to have to spend to the next two days checking the United app over and over to see if I can get back to the same level of seat that United told me I was getting when I booked.

I'm starting to get particularly irritated about how bad flying cross-county is on United. I've found JetBlue with no status to be far more comfortable than United. United's 777 10-across economy layout is downright awful and I'm starting to dread flying on it cross-country. Short of flying on Spirit, I haven't found a worse layout. Even a Southwest 737 is superior to United's 777 10-across seating.

So, I'm thinking for next year, I will try to do just enough on United to maintain Gold since, mostly for my international travel but start flying JetBlue or something else better than United for cross-country domestic. If my company didn't pay for premium economy (Premium Plus in United speak) for International, I'd leave United altogether because there's no way I'd sit those awful 10-across seats for 10-hour flights to and from Europe multiple times per year.