There are some particularly condescending posts in here which I won't give credibility to by replying. Suffice it to say that at a large hub where long transits are common it surely makes sense to cater for 20% of your customers where possible.
As for the flight, I'm going to make direct comparisons with EK on what I feel are most important to me as a traveller.
1) Seat
I was very pleased with the BA seat. The design, whilst accomodating a lot of J class passengers in a small space, is efficient and comfortable. I would take the seat over any EK J seat including A380 as it has plenty of "wiggle room" in the feet area as well as being completely flat.
2) Cabin crew
Very impressed in the main, a couple of the fellas seemed a bit grumpy but service level was very good. It probably helped that the J cabin was quiet but nonetheless, it was very good, at least as good as EK and possibly better.
3) Transiting
Someone called Dubai a horrible place to transfer, I disagree. Heathrow is awful in comparison, lounges overcrowded, cramped seating, staff not particularly helpful, slow wifi connection, poor food selection, extortionate duty free prices, no smoking area (I won't elaborate on this one). The only upsides to my transit was I was sat next to Gary Lineker for half an hour, managed to catch a chat with Ian Macgaskill and the wide selection of English newspapers and magazines. Dubai is a haven of tranquility in comparison, spacious lounges, good food, great service level, loungers to stretch out on and great duty free pricing.
4)Food on board
No better or worse than EK, Salmon was nice if a little bland. Salad was good.
5) IFE
I'm not sure if being used to ICE has spoiled me but BA IFE is awful in comparison. Tiny, low resolution screen that would be more at home in the back of a TCX short haul charter flight. Poor selection of TV programmes, no flight info other than a map (I like to see speed, altitude etc) and due to the fold out nature of the screen it has to be put away for take off and landing.
6) Priority baggage delivery
Not sure how this is supposed to work but my bag was almost the last one off despite having a priority tag. Time is valuable and hanging around for bags is not ideal.