lovensing said:
It's not question of being practical. Everybody has his/her own way to be practical, as long as it works. And for most of the visitors in USA, even not being practical works pretty good. I think most of the POE officers are tolerant and aware of the fact that many of the visitors are "visiting first time". If they were intolerant they would not let to have you wait for your checkin bag, where you all the documents. They are just doing their jobs.
Regarding those parents and sons, it seems they were aware that there is something called I-539 to extend stay beyond 6 months. Only thing they did not know that they need to have proof of approval. They thought just throwing an I-539 application form to the face of USCIS and not worrying about it would be perfectly fine. They did not know they staying without approval is illegal. That is called "little learning" (and as your know it's always dangerous) and I don't think they did that intentionally. It's innocent mistake and as neocor commented "it's their own making". So your excuse of "Old people of INDIA" is nothing more than an excuse. Most of old people from India (many of them even can't speak English) enter USA without problem and they leave USA before their I-94 expiry dates. If someone needs to overstay due to so many reasons and that becomes a special case - they must be aware of the pitfalls and consequences for that overstay. It's has nothing to do with being old or young.
Now, it's possible that my speculation is absolutely wrong and in fact they had their visa extension approved. In that's case it's very unfortunate.