It's more MrsK has become accustomed to business class than me. When we first met, MrsK was a very nervous traveller (she only got her passport in 2005), and would overpack, want to get to the airport hours in advance, fret over every detail. After a decade plus of travel with me, it's now Hand Luggage Only, breeze through security, know where the lounges are - and insist on bus class for her at least (as is right).
With the UK company, their policy was econ, and prem econ if the flight was over five hours. In the UK that was a rarity, except for us colonials. I would put in for points upgrade to bus class, and about half the time it came through - so that was a blessing. The other flights - I can't sleep sitting up, so it was just 28 hours of not doing much. The econ mini-cabin up on top of the old A380s made it bearable though.
In 2020-21, Qantas were offering status credits on different bits and pieces - Qantas Hotel, Qantas Wine, and probably a few other things. 10-15 credits at a time. I was actually 21 credits short of LTG and wanted to do one return flight so I could get to 13,999 - just for bragging rights. But then I got 25 status credits through a Hotel stay and Wine, and the rest they say is history. I should have taken a screen shot and edited the image, just to have a bit of a good story, of "hardship" etc.
I'm currently Points Club plus, we get that easily through our credit card spend, and linking any schemes such as Woolies - but we don't go out of our way to chase the points with dollars we don't need to spend. The status credits you can get through Points Club, from taking reward flights is a nice bonus though, if you're still chasing them to get to LTG.