Well I beg to differ. AF does get away with huge fares and a dismal product. I think the rationale of AF's marketing department is pretty cynical:

1. what our premium customers are looking for is flexibility and they are willing to cough up a lot for it. Catering is a side issue.
2. our longhaul premium customers connecting at CDG don't expect a decent meal during their medium haul segments, they had (or will have) plenty of food during their longhaul segment

I personally don't agree with those views. Reality check for AF: I used to travel a lot within Europe and can't recall the number of times I had to rush at the airport at 5 PM to catch a 7 PM flight for a 9 PM arrival (home at 11 PM). I had certainly no time to have a decent mail at the airport and would have loved to look forward to enjoying a nice meal on board. Same for breakfast. Common sense dictates that with a 7 AM departure most passengers want to maximize their sleep the night before therefore they skip the 5 AM breakfast at home and expect a proper breakfast on board at 7:30 AM.