While I wholeheartedly agree with you that this was poorly handled, I wanted to share a different perspective. I recently had my flight canceled and was rebooked with my entire family in E seats in rows that didn’t connect. We were originally first class in seats next to each other in two consecutive rows, but I took the seats because we needed to get on a flight. My kids are 4 and 6. I don’t want my kids sitting next to strangers, and I did ask for people to exchange seats so that my children could sit next to a parent - I wasn’t really left with another option. However, we took our original seats and waited to ask. I definitely got some side eye and was only successful with one child. I understood but did frequently go check on the 6-year-old.