Yes TK - the dark horse is aptly forgotten and totally agree with you for its Do&Co food and IST lounge.

I take monthly J trips via EWR en route to Philly on AI191 due to the convenient timings it has from AMD and mostly have an open end for choosing a return route/airline depending upon my schedule and have tried almost all options available based on which I have put together my list. And substantiating your fact of spending few hours extra in the premium cabins - have went to the extent of taking OZ/NH/RJ from JFK

And as far as UA v/s AI goes, lately I strongly feel that after joining *A, AI has slightly upped their game in J atleast - UA is quintessentially the same old hit & miss crews with sorbid seats - It has been 2 hits and 8 misses in my case apart from the late night arrival compared to AI's early evening.