The author admits to being an idiot.
The second part of the statement quoted above is a clear apology for the necessity of replacing 4 paying customers with flight crew dead-heading to Louisville.
That said, United should be promising (and following up on) to revamp their booking policies. If they are deliberately setting things up so that they can charge for 100 seats on a 95 seat aircraft, that is fraud, IMO. The passengers that miss the flight (unless delayed by a late arriving flight) still pay. The customers on-board still pay.
The requirement needs to be real money paid out in the amount of the fare paid by the customer (cash is king), plus whatever "vouchers" or "credits" the airline wants to offer - starting at the base value of the fare paid, and extending to at least 10 times that value - with involuntary removal from a flight being subject to the maximum as a minimum.
I fly a LOT - 100K miles last year. I am sick of the airlines crapping on all of the passengers with their booking policies.
Fly Business or First Class. No hassles on the jet.