ORD Is a mess. Three weeks ago flew into there on an international flight. It took 2 hours to go through immigration, even US citizens, who were in the same queue as foreigners. APEC card was useless.
I am with you and will be avoiding ORD on an international itinerary for the future.
However connecting domestically on AA is easy, and the AA Flagship lounge is not bad, the staff there are really good.