I'm not agreeing with the factuality of the OP's post but in the old US World EQM's always trumphed EQS and the at airport upgrade list went by status first, then check-in time, then EQM's. So two Elites of the same level who checked in at exactly the same time would have their previous year's EQM's as the tie breaker. Those qualifying primarily on segments were always at a disadvantage in those tie-breaker situations. We had no EQP system in the US World.