Why people hate airlines

Today I am flying from Minneapolis to Grand Rapids, Michigan. My client is paying an astounding $1,300 for my round-trip ticket. So today I go to check-in online and find that I have been assigned a middle seat, even though plenty of aisle and window seats remained available. Of course, I changed my seat assignment, but why should I have to jump through that hoop? These people are just stupid. No wonder every airline seems to make a trip to bankruptcy court every 10 years.