The market for Timechain block space is arguably the only truly free market we have.

Alert settings can only indicate where people might be bidding for block space. Signed & unconfirmed transactions are still a better indicator for setting your own bid.

Mempool dot space does a great job of graphing estimated future blocks. It can get tricky to make the next block during times of high block space demand though. I don't see how alert information can help significantly with predicting this.