First of all, just because other people's experience is, or seems to be, different from yours, that doesn't mean that they are misleading you or lying. Ever heard the expression "YMMV?"

Second of all, I will add another data point here. In mid-April of this year I booked an award on United for a business class trip to Australia (from SFO), for mid-May to early June. While I was on the phone, the reservationist asked for some data like my passport number, date of birth, etc., and after a brief pause, she had my electronic visa. She did NOT give me any kind of confirmation number or visa number. She just told me it was good for one year from date of issuance (i.e., good until mid-April 2005). Also, no charge for the service was mentioned. (Of course, maybe United includes it in their ticket prices. But since this was an award ticket, all I paid were the taxes, which were reasonable.) I entered Australia with absolutely no problems or questions about visas. So, my experience is similar to what other UA and AA passengers have stated here.

You didn't mention how you booked your tickets to Australia. Did you do it online or by phone? Maybe the process works differently when you buy tix online. There must be something different that would explain why you didn't get your electronic visas at purchase time. If you booked by phone, maybe the reservationist just made an error and forgot to do the visas. Or maybe for Qantas tix the procedure is different. I suppose it's possible that some airlines include the visa in the ticket price and others don't. You could call and ask the airlines these same questions.

Edit: It sounds like you booked by phone. It also sounds as though Qantas works differently than AA or UA. As I said, perhaps the "free" visa is buried in the latters' ticket prices.