I've been having similar struggles over the past year as JetBlue clearly is no longer the same airline as it used to be. And living in NY with my client base, Delta would be the likely alternative for me as well. I like Ed Bastian a lot and I've done some work for Delta so I'm familiar with things on the inside. That said, I had a medical issue on a Delta transcon in late 2017. I only flew Delta that day because I didn't want to fly the JetBlue redeye. The Delta FAs were not compassionate at all and passengers around me were all business travelers who were very unkind in general. Just an overall bad experience for me that to this day has left a sour taste in my mouth for Delta. I can't help but feel that that would not have happened on JetBlue. Other than that, my experiences on Delta have been fairly positive as someone without status. I do agree that it's more favorable to have status though.

I don't really care about lounges but I do like gate areas that are not cramped.

This will be likely be the year I decide whether to stick with JetBlue or move to Delta. If I didn't live in NY, I'd probably go with Southwest.