I find myself somewhere in the middle here having the somewhat heretical thought that both types of FF's are important albeit possibly for different reasons.

BTW- TWA and AA are somewhat different IMHO, since with TWA you can get where you're going different ways and paying higher prices is an incentive, yet AA precludes you from attaining otherwise higher status (Ex Plat) without buying the higher Y fares or F class tickets. If I'm wrong here, please kindly correct me. Thanks.