It is all about labor costs. SQ, EK and the like will catch up to BA standards (or down) eventually. At that time probably Vietnam air, or Air Cambodia will be lauded as the poster child of air travel.
Mr MAc, I personally don't like BA cause as a family of staff I was privy to some of the training they would conduct, especially profiling........I was the practice dummy at home. However I must say your bags seriously did have bad Karma on that airline and you were better off switching from a Feng Shui point of view!