I thought the EMD benefit was either an extra bag or extra 20kg? AA's limit in economy is 23kg so how would that increase to 32kg?

As to the AA's leniency towards overweight bags - I only found myself in such a situation only once or twice and I never had to pay anything. But the check-in agent did point out that the limit was 23kg and that she was waiving the extra weight charge. On AA, unlike BA, the extra weight is a class of service benefit rather than an elite benefit, so elites do get extra bags allowance but standard for a class of service (23kg in economy and 32kg on business/first).