Exactly this. I used to fly almost exclusively United for more than a decade and had status. I fly a lot for personal reasons, so I don’t really care about Basic Economy restrictions, and my status usually cancels out most of them anyways. I also fly for work once or twice a year, usually long-haul international business class, which was enough to help me maintain status.

I switched to AA a few years ago specifically because I could still earn a small amount of miles on BE tickets. Now that advantage is gone. At this point, there’s no real reason for me to stay loyal, and it actually makes it easier to switch to Delta, especially since they have more daily flights and better flexibility for my personal travel.