Exactly what I was trying to say in my post. Sales before loyalty and this has apparently changed the strategy of tier upgrade availibility but opening up F bucket early would solve many uncertainty issues.

Not fully familiar with eq. BAEC but as AFAIK they always open 2 Avios seats for EVERY flight on ALL classes ~1 year ahead. Someone more knowledgeable will certainly correct me if I am wrong, additionally they have a voucher mechanism to force open an award seat for tier members.
And I am not even trying to say it is a better system or not, only that there are alternative approaches to awards and AY waitlisted approach will not suit me. To be able to waitlist I need to first book and then waitlist and this hit-or-miss strategy is a big no-go for me. I don't care SH upgrades that much but refuse to travel AY longhaul Y at all costs.

Premium Ecomomy concept starting 2021 will most likely make things even worse and more compilcated. Wanna bet on that?