You thought wrong. Something the bloggers pushing credit cards and CX F don’t mention: AS went to multiple tier pricing on their own metal a long time ago, and did additional changes such that (for example) long domestic flights in Saver F are 30k, not 25k (you can actually book them cheaper on AA). AS does have some places where you can find value on AS metal (Alaska sometimes, or Mountain West, Mexico, or Hawaii), but a lot of the time it’s just like DL or WN where 1.X CPM is about what you’re going to get.

Frankly if it wasn’t for partner premium redemptions (and their NEW partner redemption rates are bad), AS wouldn’t be that much different from DL SkyPesos in terms of value on awards.