I don't know what NH's strategy is on the YVR route here given that their competition (JL) has a fully-flat, staggered product (SS6), but perhaps NH expects be satisfied with selling codeshares on AC on the NRT-YVR route. Also, it could be that most of their target customers are leisure travelers going from Japanese domestic destinations on holiday, hence the relatively low-quality product.

Edit: connections from SIN and BKK are quite good for this route, though, so perhaps they expect to pick up some transit traffic. But 16-17 hours on recliners is definitely not my way to get across the Pacific...!