I find it mildly fascinating, because the parent's argument boils down to: it is more work. As other have already pointed out, airlines may not be the role mode

I find it mildly fascinating, because the parent's argument boils down to: it is more work. As other have already pointed out, airlines may not be the role model for this. More to the point, it likely is better to have actual individual identifiers assuming identification is the actual goal. Naturally, maybe the goal is just to get this train moving somehow.