I always take the best fare available, however when I was collecting and there was a real chance of getting status, I would stick to *A, and alter dates/destinations/stopovers until I found something that worked in terms of price/miles.

I almost refuse to pay extra on principle. It defeats the point IMO to pay thousands extra to get "Freebies" worth hundreds. How much are miles and status really worth to you? I redeemed 160k for a mRTW in J that was coming up as $26k on ITA. However to me, it was probably "worth" ~$3k, as in that's what I'd pay cash for that itinerary. Given that I could normally fly that route for $2000 in economy, a bigger seat is frankly not worth that much to me personally. If I could sell my reward ticket for $26k that's one thing, but to claim better food and drinks + 3x the plane real estate justifies a 1200% increase in fare is nonsense.

Or even status. You can buy lounge memberships for something like $500 a year. You're spending 3-4 times that extra to get points/status (following the above example). How exactly does anyone other than the airline come out ahead there?