Any computer warning is an algorithm that attempts to calculate the replacement based on limited factors and by design is conservative.
But on a practical level, considering eventual resale value and the possibility of engine failure & warranty coverage, would you rather spend $100 now vs, the risk of a $5,000 engine failure?
To me it’s “cheap insurance”.
I smiled when I read your post @Beancounter. I agree with you, BTW. The smile is because you use the same rationale that a lot of our friends do for changing oil at 5000 miles no matter what the oil life monitor says.
With a screen name like @Beancounter, I’d expect the math was easy!
Yeah, the math is easy but the “common sense” is the hard part. 
The check engine light (CEL) and the Maintenance Minder are two different lights. The CEL detects a malfunction in your vehicles performance and that requires unscheduled maintenance.
The maintenance minder is telling you the scheduled maintenance is due, i.e oil change etc. The various manufacturers use different algorithms to turn on this light from simple miles/time to complicated formulas.
For the simple time/miles, the preventative maintenance (PM) schedule may call for an oil change every 5000 miles or six months. If you have been putting more than 10000 miles per year on your vehicle, then you are used to seeing the light every 5000 miles. But if for some reason you are driving less, the the light will come on 6 months after the last oil change, but you may have only put 4000 miles on it during that time.
There are factors that cause the oil to wear out or break down. Among them are heat, friction, contamination, heat soak after shutdown etc. The computer cannot analyze your oil, but it can measure the factors that cause it to wear out or break down, assign a numerical value to the exposure and then store those values as an accumulation. That is to add up those values as they are stored. When the total value exceeds a threshold, it turns on the maintenance light.
The second type of accumulating the value of the various factors can and will result in different intervals for your oil changes as you change factors in your driving. More short trips, higher average oil temp due to weather and other factors affect how fast the value of the various factors accumulate.
I just change my oil based upon mileage, not what the car is deciding for me. I use a synthetic but does the car know if I’m using synthetic, syth blend or regular oil? Nope. So if I use syn. I will wait longer than regular oil. I always add PowerUp NNL-690 to my oil which keeps it lasting longer and protects the engine. I’m not a sales rep. Just a satisfied user.
The proliferation of turbocharged engines changes the math on oil changes. My 2014 Mazda 6 had the normally aspirated 2.5 liter engine and had a 7,500 mile oil change interval. The oil life indicator typically showed plenty of life left at 7,500 miles. My 2018 Mazda 6 has the same engine but it is turbocharged. Oil change interval is 5,000 miles. My oil life indicator does not show that I can stretch that out at all in the winter. In the summer I could stretch to 6,000 miles but why would I?
Stop and go traffic is much harder on the engine. Particularly if you are driving 10 miles or less to your destination.if you drive 5 miles but at highway speed the engine still gets warm enough to be ok and is better on the car because you are maintaining a rpm level but stop n go traffic the rpms are constantly up and down and thats hard on the engine.the computer knows this because it sees the stress the engine is under. That is why you’re having to change the oil sooner because the oil is taking the brunt of the beating but eventually the oil cant displace the heat and friction anymore so instead of taking the chance that the oil will fail its better to change it a little earlier.
Thanks. Your comment was informative, i read this somewhere too.
You are welcome glad I could help.
It would be interesting if some of the members on this forum that have 3 to 4 hundred thousand miles on their engines have used oil additives.
My personal opinion is that if there was any benefit to using them, the auto manufacturers would be putting them in.
The idea that manufacturers want your engine to wear out sooner is ridiculous when today’s engines last so long with just regular oil changes.