I pay all the time for short haul premium where there is actually a premium product- in the USA, Canada, and Asia (particularly with CX, TG, and SQ) I buy business class tickets for 2 hour flights. Why?
1) Better Seat- i can actually work on confidential information without people reading what I am doing- in this way alone the flight is "auto financed"
2) Food- I can eat something decent if at a meal time and I have no other choice
3) Very good lounges in Asia- worth paying for. Sorry Lufthansa but your "business class" lounges are really very poor in comparison. Not as bad as UA but you are certainly in the running at this point.
4) Real Fast Track- send some LH staff from FRA to BKK and let them see the passport fast track areas- then send them back to FRA and look at the disgrace that is Frankfurt. It is not acceptable to over and over say "it is not our fault it is ...."- fix it. Get a real Fast Track and make it available to people who pay for the service. I would do it for sure- Lufthansa has been promising this over and over with the "new Aplus" which did absolutely nothing except make for longer walks and larger queues.
5) Flexibility- with CX and SQ for example I can change my business class tickets without any charges. Not like your hidden D fares that rebook in J for 2000 EUR more (which I consider a very very bad business practice and frankly a rip off).
Just some ideas. It is not the customer that is the problem here. It is the company that wants to have LCC policies and product with Singapore Airlines pricing.
Don't even get me started about areas like priority boarding and checkin which frankly if you are not a HON circle member just don't exist.