Though I just swapped war stories with a friend who came down to visit - he flew yyz-lax-syd and the xfer and re-check in lax sounded just as bad as the honolulu shuffle.

I don't necessarily agree, but having said that, the last time I came through HNL I swore I wouldn't fly AC unless I had no choice for this route, solely because of the poorly orchestrated transfer. [Though the concierge staff in HNL are the best I've met in the system, for sure.]