Firstly, I'm sorry that the OP had this experience. But as a fresh AA Gold, he should know that upgrades are done by status, then by EQD. Without prior travel on AA in the past year (or at all), he would be at the bottom of the barrel.
Secondly, if I was traveling between Vegas and Santa Fe, I probably would have just flown WN nonstop to ABQ. There are at least 4x daily (that I can easily see). From ABQ, there is a railrunner train that will get you up to Santa Fe, or you could rent a car, or take one of several different shuttles. I've been to Santa Fe several times. While there are flights into SAF, I've found it far easier to fly to ABQ and rent a car from there (car rentals seem less at ABQ, IME).
Thirdly, after the extensive layover at PHX, who did he talk to about possible alternatives? Taking a quick look through AA's PHX-ABQ schedule, there seemed to have been at least 2 different flights he could have gotten on (I don't know if there were seats, but it doesn't hurt to ask). Again, from ABQ it is fairly straightforward getting up to Santa Fe.
Yes, things can and sometimes do go wrong when you fly any carrier. But coming up with alternatives when they do is part of being a smart traveler. As an elite on Delta, I'm surprised that the OP wouldn't have thought of alternatives and either called or spoken to someone at the airport.
Hope today's travel is better for the OP. At least it looks like the PHX-SAF flight arrived:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...446Z/KPHX/KSAF