The restaurant option is certainly much better than the lounges, given the normal domestic lounges just provide soft drinks and maybe a candy or senbei if you are lucky.
KIX also has landside lounge access that is PP. Just two beers and a dish of food, but better than nothing.
Narita has a couple options. At least one is landside and offers a decent okonomiyaki set.

I was on the fence as to whether to renew my Rakuten Gold card, as the only real benefit is the PP access. Just cardmember (guest is ¥3,300 and rarely worth it), and starting in January it will be limited to 5 visits a year. I consider a domestic lounge visit worth about ¥500, but the restaurant visits are decent meals, so getting 4 or more makes it worthwhile.