I am in a similar situation to the original poster with a few thousand status credits but based in Europe. The four QF flights were easy enough until recently as a flight from the UK regions to London to connect to a flight to Dubai would get them in one trip. Unfortunately with that option now gone, and QF coded flights from London to Dubai, now being a lot more expensive than under an EK code the options are quite limited. Without having any plans to go to Australia at the moment, the only options I can find are to Bangkok or Singapore.
I have almost a year of Platinum left, and hopefully I will soft land to Gold even if I don't get 4 QF flights. I'm struggling to decide if I should stick with it and hoping that the Dubai flights might return to a reasonable price at some point, or that I decide to visit Bangkok or Singapore.
I would hope to get close to Lifetime Silver in the next few years if I push everything QFF, but maybe I would be better just cutting my losses now and concentrating on another scheme.