Why the hike in PE fares?

I am travelling PE MAN/MCO in November and paid just under £800 per person roundtrip. Just looked for early March (no Easter, so still off-peak) and the fare is £1,200 - over 50% higher!
EC is advertised for same March period, albeit on offer, from £401 so the upgrade difference in cost is massive.
Does anyone know the thought process behind this move?
As it is I have some flexibility so will wait for the next PE seat sale.

Having just done a search I can see £604 out and £411 back for 4th and 20th respectively. However a lot of flights are a lot more and many have no seats available so I can only suppose all of the cheaper buckets have gone. It's just the way they work.
Dick D

Me and a friend snapped up 2 PE round trips MAN-MCO for around the period of time as the OP (out 5th, back 12th) for around £1,000 and noticed a week ago they had increased by about 20%

The key is timing. If you wait about 2/3 weeks after the flights have been released they appear to be as low as they can get without a sale before they gradually start to go up depending on availability. That said, if you want to have a go at figuring out how all this works then best of luck!

PE for around £30 cheaper than what you can buy a ticket in UC for the same flight !?

Would you really buy the PE with such a small difference?

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PE for around £30 cheaper than what you can buy a ticket in UC for the same flight !?

Would you really buy the PE with such a small difference?

No. But when the cheaper UCseats are gone the difference between PE and UC will be substantial.

A flexible Y is usually more expensive than a non- flexible PE seat.