Does an award ticket have longer MINIMUM connecting times than a revenue ticket?

I'm trying to book a ticket SEA to SYD with Miles in Economy class.

When I search for that same itinerary (on the same date) with cash, these neat connections show:



However, when I search for the same itinerary with Miles, the last two options from above do not show. It forces me to take the flight landing at 6.16pm and wait for over 4 hours in LAX.

If I do a search to look for the flights SEA to LAX with Miles, I see that all 3 flights are available, all for the same cost in Economy, all available in Fare Class T:



Why is it refusing to issue my award ticket on the better connections, if they have award space for the same cost? Does the award ticket have longer minimum connecting times than a revenue ticket?




Things I have (unsuccessfully) tried to bypass this:

• Booking as Multi-City, with a stopover in LAX
• Booking the ticket with the early flight landing at 6.16pm, and then attempting to change that first leg after the ticket has been issued
  • I requested help from the Reservations chat, but he couldn't help or explain why this is happening. Basically "computer says no", period.