hopefully the OP can make sense of the (quite good) information above. The reason it's so confusing is, SL is a really great status tier and one of the real strong points of the "Cathay" program (formerly Marco Polo Club or MPC, I've been reminded I keep calling it the wrong thing)!

I certainly commend CX for the Silver tier. It's confusing since it offers something outside the norm of OneWorld benefits, put another way I think it's confusing because it's so good and out of the ordinary. You get lounge access when flying on CX and access to the lounges of said airline that is in contention for, and may just be #1 overall, top global airline lounge quality/coverage. CX lounges (in particular, J class lounges) are excellent, consistent (gripes aside about whatever the food is in the CX F lounges and the lame state of wine, lets be honest standards have hardly slipped from J class lounges since revamp, noodle bar options usually abundant + a la carte options, interior upkeep is strong, I think they've really shone strong here) and abundant across most key CX destinations. No say nothing of the spoiled-for-lounges situation we have at HKG.

For those who fly on CX metal, Silver is really excellent.

As an aside, I think the way they can differentiate Gold is by opening up more preferred seat inventory. With CX pushing towards keeping its own award inventory for members and forcing people to transfer into Asia Miles, I think it bodes well for the whole program. (IIRC Golds also get free seat selection, a nice benefit, although it's hard to wax lyrical about things that used to be free.)

I guess I have one more aside. I've been in the PVG lounge more times than intended the last month. (J class lounge). I know it's not new. But I'm still amazed at the abundant food selection and what an upgrade it is over some of the things that CX/KA used to build or have in China. I remember when the (now old/then-new) T3 KA lounge in PEK was revamped, maybe 2007-2009 timeframe somewhere in there, the hardware looked nice but even then it was still a little odd and right off the bat still not quite up to intl standards. The CX PVG lounge is really indistinguishable from the rest of the network, in my view delivers the authentic CX lounge experience. Mainland China isn't always an easy place to operate, I think it says a lot about CX and their lounges in a positive way, what they were able to achieve there.