oz-b,
Whilst I generally agree with the thrust of your post, Emirates flies over Iran, QF doesn't - risk assessment. As far as the A380 goes, it has pretty good altitude capability. For example at MTOW, you can climb to F340 if you need to. On a short sector like DXB-LHR, then F380 initially is normal with F400 before Iraq - with a good pax load.
But yes, F400 is still an easy target for the systems we are concerned about.
N