It's easy to chalk this up to whining and ignore it since it comes off as a rant. The problem is that United and its employees don't consider service a priority, not that they have a policy about canceling flights when you skip the original leg. I've had this experience multiple times with United and have found them to be the worst offender of all the legacy airlines.

They are a mess and they are outright hostile to their customers much of the time. I realize that travelers get stressed out and yell a lot and it can be frustrating, but laughing at a customer should never be acceptable.