Ah, that's a bit different. Pre EGP devaluation QR's fare was higher than most other OW carriers. That could be where that perception came from. QR and AA had their ex-CAI fares in USD so they didn't fluctuate when the EGP dropped against USD. But if you ticketed on RJ as the first segment, you paid the slightly higher than QR YQ, but then if you pay the $125 change fee to change it to QR on the first segment you get that difference back. I don't think there was ever a situation where QR had an outsized YQ, just the QR base fare was much higher. Post EGP devaluation, the difference was over US$2000 in the base fare between the RJ and QR base fare, hence the perception that QR fees were high.

I recall a year or so ago, one of the travel agents in this forum explained how QR applies their YQ / YR if it's a QR ticket. They said QR has a base surcharge for having their segment on the ticket, I forget how much but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary... nothing like BA or QF, then a much smaller add-on for each additional segment. I do also recall that was for a ticket issued on Sabre, and may or may not be applicable in Amadeus or Travelport.