I've also experienced them as playing completely by the book so far. I can understand why from a predictability and fairness towards other passengers perspective, but I do with they were a bit more flexible at times. I remember when a Lufthansa employee bent the rules for me to get me on a much nicer routing than he was apparently authorized to after I had missed my flight due to a train delay, for example (Deutsche Bahn's fault, but part of my LH itinerary). Even though he probably was acting well in his discretion, it felt like we were getting away with tricking LH somehow, and it was a really personal and human moment in the usually super anonymous experience of flying.

That said, I've been very happy with the politeness of all but two OZ employees I've ever dealt with (one was a *A award booking agent in LA, another some guy at the OZ Gold desk in ICN)