Qatar coming second shows that you can treat your employees even worse than Emirates and still get appraisal from the passengers.
Both showed very nicely that with punitive leadership you can rise to the top quite fast . However, it does not last long enough. Maybe for one CEO period, but then this method wears out in no time.
The fall is mostly even faster than the rise, sustainability does never come with this preferred ME style (this stands for mediaeval buy the way).
At EK it has started!