Speaking to the EK crew in Melbourne recently, along with a few of the big Q escapees over to the sandpit, it seems the same formula for pax is working with cargo. One stop all over the world.
Apparently the 777 carries a fair whack of freight even with a full load of pax, and the freighter seems to be a regular sight in Sydney now. From what they said, direct services to DXB are generally MTOW, and all the services via Asia are MZFW, which means their staff travel prospects to and from Australia take a hit.
Perhaps they are doing to the freight market now what they have done to the pax market. A global mega hub.
Then again, they can't be that smart since of course they don't have the right aircraft to do it with (according to our esteemed leaders).