AA also counts award flights toward their 30 segment requirement for getting full benefits from their program. SQ did a promo of giving their *G status for transferring points from a credit card (which isn't quite the same thing, but is pretty close).

A program which does most/all of:
* revenue-based earning
* dynamically priced awards (doubly so if award pricing is revenue-based)
* awards with last seat availability
* partners with transferrable points credit cards
* regularly sells miles at a discount (i.e. not just for when you need a few thousand more for an award)

doesn't have that strong of a case beyond tradition for excluding award flights from elite qualification (as doing all of those things is basically equivalent to pricing every ticket in miles).

What with half of their TATL alliance counting awards for elite credit (and thus giving their members more of an inducement to avoid AFKL metal than AFKL gives its members to avoid DL/VS) and the effect on cash settlements for partner awards, I would bet on AFKL being the first of the EU3 to do XPs for award flights.