Seem to remember in my time at Ryanair seeing the odd flt with booked load beyond the 189 we could carry. Given the MOL mantra " which part of no refund is it that you don't f*****G understand" , that has to go down as more than a little cheeky, but Hey, I would have expected no less from yer man.
Quite surprised if Easy were up to that trick,it is taking the "Micky" more than a little given that the seat is definitively paid for whether occupied or not (unless they are selling a hell of a lot of flexi tickets these days)
Perhaps that is the problem, they see a high proportion of flexi-tickets on a given flt & assume that some of them paid the extra to have the ability to change . . .so will. Bit of a gamble though, sounds like it backfired this time.