WAY easier than you are making it out to be

Agree. The increased elite availability makes it really easy for me - basically everything I've wanted has been at 25k.
There is a strong anti-SM sentiment across all of the flyer communities, even though the only issue is that there is no CX F. I have a ton of AA miles, and really the only difference is that DL.com is garbage and that I can't use my miles on CX F. Availability for what I need has been basically the same between both of the programs.