Sunfish, let go of your obsession!
Sunfish old chap: you are spoiling some of the good things you write by you unabated obsession about Melburnians having to travel via Sydney. This is simply untrue, as we have pointed out to you in other posts.
As for your MEL/LAX travel, you had chosen a direct flight but owing to an unfortunate mechanical problem, Qantas took you via Sydney with a resultant five hour delay. They could have chosen to leave the flight operate MEL/LAX non-stop after aircraft serviceability or new crew obtained but I am sure the delay and inconvenience would have been much worse than actually experienced. Note too that Qantas' competitors on the Pacific - United and air New Zealand - operate their flights to Los Angeles via Sydney and Auckland respectively. So on this route Qantas doesn't look too bad eh?
With your travel to Paris, I'd be looking for a new travel agent or PA to arrange my travel. QF9 from Melbourne to Singapore is designed to hub at Singapore with Qantas services to Europe, currently to Frankfurt but also to Paris when Paris was served by Qantas. Why would anyone with half a brain opt to travel Melbourne-Sydney-Singapore-Paris when they could reduce their journey time by several hours and eliminate one stop by instead travelling Melbourne-Singapore-Paris.
If you have such an insight into the various Australian aviation markets, why don't you offer your thoughts to Qantas? Better still, offer yourself for election as a director at QFs next AGM. Surely you would add more to the place than Son of Kerry????