All the middle eastern airlines have always been trying to emulate SQ's success, be it market share or profitability. It goes without saying that middle eastern airlines such as Qatar would want to rank higher than SQ in any other rankings as its good publicity for their airline.
Rankings are just like examinations. It's merely to quantify overall service satisfaction just like how exams try to quantify how much you know about a certain subject. Airlines could be simply working to top rankings because they see it as a good publicity strategy just like how a student tries to get the best possible marks in all exams so that he or she or could apply for a coveted scholarship. But at the end of the day, does the student really know what's the subject is all about? Does the airline really know what the customers want, value and subconsciously yearn to have?
Not too long ago, I've heard of rumours of Emirates asking themselves why can't they better SIA despite having a large young fleet, superior cabin product and IFEC systems, competitive pricing and extensive routes. It seems that SIA's success isn't because of all those listed but largely because of intangibles such as the kind of service provided by the FAs on board.
I haven't flown of Qatar before so I can't make any comparisons between Qatar and SQ. However, I've recently flown on Emirates. From the point I clicked the mouse button to buy my tickets from the Emirates website till the time I entered Emirates' 777-300 aircraft, everything such as service standards were quite similar to SQ's. But when on board service started such as meal service, immediately, I felt that SQ's service quality was just much better. The SQ FAs just seem friendlier, 'on the ball' and striving to give all passengers the best flying experience. Having been a loyal SIA customer, I might be bias here.