If you're on 3dsmax 2010 or lower you'll need to use one of several UV alignment scripts that where floating around before they included the feature into 3dsmax. James Haywood and Neil Blevins both have good UV align scripts. I wrote one for myself that works just like NoltaN described.…
It works with non-organic hard surface models that have minor to moderate distortion also. That's probably going to happen with it clamped in one direction also... But I agree, I'm not sure either approach would work best, probably the "wrong" example from the OP is best, but that depends on a few things that aren't said…