I agree. Paid my own way on SYD-PER (20SC's one way too) vv on Red eDeals and only just managed to scrape through to Silver years ago. A mate of mine got work to pay for his fares (full Y, 40SC's one way) and hit Gold easily.
Qantas, as any company does, decided on a metric to reward 'Frequent Flyers'.
NB may show their loyalty by taking their 2-3 flights a year on QF, and QF reward them with Frequent Flyer points.
PS/SG/WP are obviously travelling a lot more, so QF (and other companies) then reward the more regular 'loyal 'travellers with more benefits.
I think loyalty and frequency are confused here. There's a natural tendency here to confuse frequent flying with loyalty. Flying only QF, even 1-2 times a year, is loyal. It just doesn't make QF the money they want to see from a pax to grant them more benefits.
Frequent Flyer tiers are designed to enhance the travel experience for a fly-often loyal, not the fly-occasionally loyal traveller.
I don't believe that people who fly once a year should be given carte blanche to select seats. Nor do I feel that those people who fly a lot should have their benefit of preferred seat selection removed from them by said former travellers.
If NB travellers want the perks, do the miles. PS is easier than ever to attain, and if you are flying 6-7 times a year, it's very very easy to attain and retain it.
(And yes I know people will say YUPP/KUPP people don't contribute all that much to QF, but QF implemented the system, so they're obviously happy with it, and have set the minimum 4 flight on QF metal rule).