Corporate will never impose this since they are scared of the union and it is precisely because the union would also never accept something like this. Having real pursers/cabin service managers, graduated training into premium cabins, as they do in major global airlines, actually provide a meaningful promotion ladder for being a career FA. There are plenty of things the union can work with corporate to come to a meaningful arrangement, but that doesn’t make for good labor headlines and ultimately it’s the junior FAs that suffer for the inertia of their senior colleagues.

You don’t need QR-level surveillance or general ME3 level obsession with appearances etc. to provide good service, but some level of professionalism would suffice. JL, NH, and SQ are good examples. If Asia is too high a standard, as many AA frequent fliers know, service on BA is often nothing to write home about, but even on their short-haul I’ve never encountered the same level of unwillingness to work.