Personalisation Is Asymmetric Psychological Warfare
"Uncanny valley of sincerity" is the key thing here.I regularly go to the same cafe for lunch. So some of the staff know me by name, but others who've just started working there don't. And I know their faces and one or two names. This is how it works on a normal human scale.The corporate version of this delivers, as they say, asymmetrical friendliness. You see someone you've never met before and they know your name, birthday, etc. while you know nothing about them.And especially in the airline context, all this is devoted to more perfect price discrimination. They know your favourite drinks order so they can sell you more drinks.