Well, I must disagree here. I flew Emirates for the first time STN to BKK via DXB back in November and I have to say I thought they were excellent. Admittedly, I flew Business Class out and First on the return so my viewpoint may be different from that of the OP. Accommodations on both the 777 and the A380 were splendid as was the service on all sectors but the main thing that struck me was the 'newness' of the four different aircraft on which I flew. The STN-DXB sector was operated by a 777 and as far as I could see, was the only sector where the a/c was completely full, which surprised me as it was a fairly new route.
The Business configuration on the 777 is 2-3-2 and I had an aisle seat in the centre three. I thought this might be a problem with the centre seat occupant wanting to climb past me to get out. In the event it wasn't; he slept all the way to DXB.
Thought I might try Etihad on my next trip but that means flogging round the M25 to LHR. STN is much closer and my November experience was quite acceptable once through STN itself and on the aeroplane.
As an aside I was quite surprised at the number of Emirates aircraft parked around the airport at Dubai. I couldn't count them all but there seemed to be A LOT!