Southwest Airlines plans to drop the open-boarding system it has used for more than 50 years and will start assigning passengers to seats, just like all the other big airlines.
I never received this survey and I fly Southwest specifically because I found their boarding process to be less of a hassle (for a single traveler who doesn't care where they sit). The only way I could see this being beneficial is if they board people in order of assigned seat in such a way as to optimize time to seat, not the BS boarding that other airlines do to try and maximize price of fair, otherwise they will have lost the whole reason I like(d) to fly them... Their simplier, no bs, boarding process.
P.S.
I really don't get people liking to pidgen hole themselves to a specific spot for any of these things, just makes it easier to inflate the prices later
They specifically did this because it incentivizes people to sit down fast. They can turn their planes around faster, and the planes spend more time in the air earning revenue. That's what made it cheaper.
In five years Southwest is going to be just like the rest. Rip.