I'm curious as to what airline actually cooks, over an open flame, meals onboard to request? I'll admit, food has become more institutionalized over the years, but seats have become far more comfortable exponentially. The chateaubriand had center pieces that were more rare than the ends, but they didn't cook rare, med rare, and well done versions even in the peak of inflight service. But in those day your IFE was a pneumatic tube with at best, a pull down single screen in the center of the cabin. Your seat reclined maybe 30 degrees, with no foot rest and limited space. Yet those are the "glory days". The glory days weren't so glorious. They had better food and shorter skirts with younger flight attendants. That's really the only better thing. Frequency/routings, comfort, IFE, have all improved by leaps and bounds, and the price can still be a bargain. IME, it's smoke and mirrors. Reality and perception have changed. In the 70's so few traveled, let alone 1st class. Today, the unwashed masses travel, and some of them even can afford to upgrade. Galley size has remained constant. There is only so much you can do with limited space, limited, weight, and limit technologies. Today, we have convection ovens. 30 years ago we had a hot plate.

I feel your pain, but let's look at the technologies employed, what regulations impact them, and what one is giving up in exchange for them. Other than a few extremely expensive uber-suites on a few select carriers, the space, the technologies, and the costs are all pretty competitive. No one in the sub $15k/direction is pampering above anyone else. Delivery differs, but the complaints you have aren't impacted much by delivery, but by technologies and space, and again, they are all on the same generation of what each carrier allocates to each of those.

You learned a lesson. Be in C or F, they both have the same cooking technologies, the seat and space in F is better than C, the meals can be better, the IFE is similar, the service in F is more personalized than C, the lunge for F is better than C. You had issue with the size of the overhead space. I'm betting cubic feet/passenger of total space given to F is greater than C as most seats have individual storage spaces that may not accommodate a fully packed roll aboard, but will most likely accommodate the items you will use in flight. My guess is you were on a 747, where the aircraft nose tapers and narrows as you approach the radome. Seatguru.com may tell you the advantages and drawbacks of individual seats as the bin space and personal storage space is impacted differently based on your actual seat. Upper deck on 747 has side storage space that isn't big enough for a roll aboard, and no personal space/seat, and the bins are small. If you are in a window upper deck you have too much side storage, if in an aisle, you have none. Seats differ, research your needs.

As to a free UG for everyone else. Not likely at all. Just think, there might have been someone who paid straight F who felt insulted that you were able to UG for miles and cash vs pay what he/she paid. It's all about perspective when you look at it relative to you vs neutrally.