Oh I could so write a book on this topic. But I won't.
Do we protest too much? YES!
Sad as it is, our society has evolved (if that is the proper qualifying word) in that manner where people are consistently disavowing responsibility for as many things as they can.
I remember reading an article once about how many matters, design decisions and wordings had to be precisely corrected due to the most trivial of complaints. The article concluded by stating that the person who headed some consumer group of sorts said that despite the numerous complaints received by such groups, people don't complain enough! Are you crazy?!
We have also seen various examples of people who are too lazy, too inconsiderate, etc. to follow simple airline rules. Airline travel was so much more disciplined in the 1990s when I was a munchkin, but I still believe because people who flew were just like the rest of society, and were actively thinking, responsible human beings. What happened to the societies of those days? Are we so irresponsible that the only way to stop people from complaining bitterly or suing others is to spoonfeed them, or provide services for free? Perhaps communism has some merit after all....
The customer is always right? Please try not to make me laugh at that. I'd give away my two front teeth if customers were always reasonable. I still have my two front teeth.
Of course, none of this is supposed to divert attention from the fact that there are legitimate complaints against airline service, or disservice rather. But certainly more often than not, these are very clear cut cases, not fine lines. And they usually get the attention they deserve.
Then there are those that complain bitterly for no reason, and of course they still get the attention which they don't deserve.
To work for an airline, you really need a thick skin and a soft heart. No joke. Oh, and preferably a head screwed on properly and filled with something more than a void merely to keep your ears apart. Seriously.
On the more practical aspects of the OP's statement/question, I too have consistently had good service from QF. There are times when the service is pedestrian, but very rarely it is bad. In fact, I can't remember such a time when QF's service has been abysmal (in my experience). It's plausible however that due to my multiple good experiences, there is an element of bias and thus my judgement is somewhat blinded. Well, so be it, but had my view been in the direct polar reverse then I'd suffer the same problem anyway. So I'm telling you as it is.
Your case isn't representative, but just another piece of the complex array of views out there. As it stands, the array is very big, i.e. we've seen QF service range from worse than abysmal to clearly world class and global #1.
