I think you answered your own question. They were trying to differentiate themselves by democratizing travel and basically charging a little more but giving everybody the same benefits without the bogus nickel and dime charges. I think that worked well until pretty recently. SWA had a nice middle between legacy airlines and ULCCs. Basic economy fares had the double effect of killing ULCC business (also redeploying domestic capacity to leisure markets) and lowering fares so much that SWA couldn't compete on a price basis.
SWA management is stuck in a rut and is super slow to adapt. The pre board and extra seat scams are perfect examples. They hit social media and now are widely used. Instead of crushing it in the crib, SWA doesn't take a position and ends up ****ing off their loyal customers. They should have rolled out a new product 2 years ago but instead have been doing who knows what while taking fat bonuses and hiring more layers of non revenue producing management.
While I think these vultures are not going to be good for the company or its employees, our management needed a shakeup. By sitting on their hands and letting the company suffer, they made us weak and basically invited these guys into their house. Now we all get to reap what they sowed.