I don't think I remember an international flight in all of 2004 when the meal order was NOT taken by status, with the FA moving around the cabin in a seemingly random order. There may have been 1 or two flights where it was taken from rear to front or vice versa, but so few that I honestly don't remember.

When they are short on a particular choice they do often tell me, and ask for a 2nd choice. I usually give my choices, and then say, "just give me whatever you have the most of" but I usually get my first choice.

For the highly sought-after Obtento on the NRT flights, when both my wife and I request it as our first choice, I will always get it, but she gets her second choice (she is only a 1K by proxy). Well, this just means that she always get the Obento, and I have chicken or fish...

Lastly, I don't think the FA would deliberately keep other passengers from knowing there is a meal choice. On those occasions when something is in short supply, the FA will always inform the passenger that "we are very short on that, do you have a second choice?" or "I'm sorry sir, all we have left are the lobster in Asian seasame sauce (or insert your own meal selection here)... would that be ok for you?"