I think most people certainly (and rightly) consider it as premium travel. I fully agree with you that it bears no resemblance to real First Class, but it is certainly in the same category as business class (and many here keep arguing it is much better than intra-European C because of the different sitting).

In the particular context of this thread, it is very fortunate that it is not comparable to F because my (and the previous poster) point was really a comparison to C, as BA F would not have seat fees in the first place.