This is a stupid article because it is mostly about overbooking when we know that the flight was not overbooked.
Also, the discussions of compensation and “bumping” are generally making no distinction between bumping a passenger at the gate and removing from their assigned seat and booting them off the aircraft. By virtue of the airline’s contract with the passenger, this is legally something very different.
The story is resonating not so much because the passenger in question is such a compelling figure or behaved particularly well, but because of public unhappiness with the Stalinist police state mentality of airline customer service especially in coach class. So many flight attendants appear to be either grumpy older women or very prickly gay men that the customer experience has gone down the tubes. The first way to fix the airlines is to hire different gate agents and different flight attendants. Employees who cannot muster a smile and be nice to customers should not be allowed to continue on the job. The airlines could easily fix this by sending undercover evaluators on their flights, but then they don’t really want to know, do they?
You are so right. The airlines want your dollars but act as if you are a nuisance they have to put up with. Common courtesy by the airlines went away a long time ago.