I'm not sure I agree with that. SQ has good redemptions for their own metal (although they've devalued recently) but they do not upgrade SQ Golds (even PPS is a hit and miss), so I'm not sure if there's ANY benefit to having status through them. If anything, Aegean is possibly an easier program to get status in, if you can get the A3 metal flight requirement.

If you want miles that are actually worth redeeming somewhere, United, despite all its faults, is still a viable program.