With regards to upgrades by FFM card holders ... we have discussed this before in here. Friends of mine that belong to BA Exec, but live overseas, land up with more upgrades than those of us that are based here.
One of my friends has his Exec card based overseas with a friend and often gets better redemption deals and so forth.
As to 'best airline' or BA's problem? A simple example, in this thread F3G was highly irritated by AF, whereas, in a thread the other week, someone was singing their praises on all fronts.
In a business that has hundreds of flights each day, each staffed by differnt people of different backgrounds and cultures and used by different people (of ditto), consensus is going to be difficult to find.
I know that BA offer very high quality service and am always delighted to board their aircraft. However, due to the attitude of the management and the Dirty Tricks brigade, they will remain my second choice of carrier.