Yeah, this is a pretty common thing for me as well. I prefer to sit by my wife on long flights (3+ hours) and will usually pay an enormous fee for a damned middle seat. Outside of that, pfft hell no. Then it's a toss-up whether I get what I want or not. The prices are pretty outrageous considering it costs nothing.

On exception was flying Lot Airlines to and from Poland. We picked seats together on both flights, and neither selection was honored. That was pretty BS. They couldn't fix it at the gate because the flight was full and it would be too difficult. 🤦‍♂️