It's an interesting case, in the thread there were several topics at play:

1. a mistake I made in reading the OP which then led to some discussion of "QR published fares." But, again, that was 100% my fault-- QR's publishing or not publishing a fare here was and is irrelevant (for the reasons pointed out by other members.)

3. the discussion of YY fares for AAdv award construction. This came about, again, as a result of my mistaken statement about QR published fares being relevant. That said-- needless to say-- I was and am 100% correct about the YY fare issue and any claim to the contrary is nonsense.

2. is where I had thought the issue here was actually, correctly addressed; jridge's post #12
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22503298-post12.html

That said, that does not seem to have changed to include QR from a very quick look. So, it's a back to square one situation if they had said "no" (or in the unlikely event they get back to you to cancel/change your award.)

If they allow it, as they have thus far, we might just have to pit it in the catch-all of "not completely explainable" but, very welcome! And/or in the category of flexibility with this rule introduced whenever AA is the governing carrier (but, of course, that wouldn't explain the initial denial to the OP.)