Don't come to AA so you don't compete with my upgrades
My upgrades on AA get bought with orphaned AA miles+cash (which, incidentally, can be procured before EXP comp upgrades and are the equivalent of SWUs, as they come out of the same bucket, a nice feature for non-elites you may end up having to use if you don't get comped EXP but do decide AA is worth your time to fly anyway). I don't have status with them (AS status, which I do have, means "you are lucky that you get EQMs with us, peasant, please enjoy your seat in 30B").
Incidentally, AS? They'll match MVPG based on a 1K (don't think they comp MVPG 75K, but the incidental benefit of that is marginal unless you fly a lot on AS)- and if you're going to be doing any significant West Coast travel, you'll find AS status quite handy (since AA's West Coast network isn't all that great, and AA/AS don't have luggage fee reciprocity). Knock yourself out by applying for the match and knocking me out of my upgrades. Their airline, their rules.
1K/EXP lites are not human beings
I don't begrudge anyone trying to work the system: this is, after all, FlyerTalk, home of "how can I get F class seats around the world for $0.32 in spend?". If you don't look out for yourself, the airlines aren't likely to. I just tend to think AA has dealt with high-value customers who switched airlines before as a result of mergers, seeing as, well, they INVENTED the frequent flyer program... and EXP comps are rare compared to challenges for lower levels of status, and there are good reasons for that.