If you are the most senior pilot eligible for a trip, auto accept casts the widest net. It doesn't matter if you did or didn't have the intent to acknowledge and fly the trip.

In theory, during a very chaotic month the top pilot ina category can submit a slip with auto accept and just sit back and do nothing. Any time the company uses 23.M.7 he gets paid.

But the part that sucks for most pilots is the guys that can make that 23.M.7 money are the absolute most senior pilots

(That's how I understand it, happy to be corrected)