It's really not so bad. Sure, if you're top tier with another carrier, you'll get the upgrades that Hawaiian doesn't give you. But Hawaiian gold gets me predictable access to reasonable coach seats on reasonably comfortable planes, preboarding so I don't have to worry about overhead space, and a 50% RDM bonus. Those miles won't easily get me international premium cabins, but are easy to use on flights I'd otherwise be paying for. And as long as I can avoid the God-awful Philippine call center, I'm treated decently at the airport and on board, and it doesn't bother me that they're providing the same decent treatment to occasional fliers too.

Next flight on UA will get me to silver, and concentrating everything there would get me to gold some years, but I'm really not sure I see the point. I'd get some upgrades to the west coast, but not to IAD, DEN, IAH, or EWR, and if I'm going farther east I care more about getting as far as I can on the first leg than playing upgrade roulette.

Hawaiian could do some simple little things that would make their program a lot more valuable for elites without costing them a lot or devaluing the experience for everyone else, and I wish they'd do that. But reading the UA forum is a good reminder that predictably decent treatment is not trivial, and Hawaiian delivers that.