In my experience SE with ML*1 still gets meal selection ahead of others.

I had an intersting experience with this a few weeks ago. I was travelling with my wife and son. They are both my nominees and R2 at T-7, so I split the PNR and confirmed their upgrades right away. My upgrade cleared at the gate.

I nominated my wife for E50, so she has status and my son doesn't. I got asked for my meal selection before everyone else in the cabin (I wasn't seated with the other 2 due to clearing at the gate). My wife ended up being told there was a meal for her, but not my son. We ended up sharing meals between the 3 of us to make sure we all got something.

This left me feeling conflicted. I was happy that SE's were getting first meal selection. On the other hand, I thought it was ridiculous that a confirmed upgrade 7 days before departure would not get a meal. I complained to AC about them not loading enough meals for confirmed passengers and email and I received a "s#!+ happens" type of response, not even a 5% discount code.