The quality of AA's product is fairly irrelevent on where to collect points. You can collect points on AAdvantage without ever travelling on AA and can redeem on other airlines such as CX and QF ( and without paying fuel surcharges )

Comparing an international configuration Qantas flight with a domestic configured AA flight is unreasonable. Generally AA's 1st class domestic product is similar in standard to QF domestic except that meals ( where they exist on AA ) can be better than QF but QF more likely to have a meal

The hard product of AA international 1st is, I think better than the hard product of QF on a 747 ( not that I think either are that good ) the menu on AA is not as good as the menu on QF in 1st

Personally I would choose another carrier to either

Dave