Can't comment on short haul Y catering. But earlier this year, got back from a trip in J on SQ, JAL, UA, and OZ long haul and KE short haul.
While they were just one off flights in J with airlines coming out of covid, out of all the J flights, OZ meals were the best. They were back to their highs of about 5 years ago, and it was no competition. And yes, even better than JAL out of NRT. I'll be on another roundtrip in J with SQ later this year, so will see how SQ catering has progressed. To be fair to SQ, the catering was out of EWR, and I believe they're notorious for being pretty bad. Also, the KE short haul meal was, imho, almost inedible.
All this to say that I think it's going to take a while for catering standards to stabilise as airlines come out of covid.