There is some bad news for us AA elites. During the Q3 call, internal information regarding the AAdvantage program was released. AA will be adopting a similar upgrade system to Delta, with the ability to purchase the in-app upgrade with miles starting in early 2025. View From the Wing released an article on this:

American Airlines 2025 Overhaul: First Class Upgrades With Miles Made Easier—But Expect Higher Costs - View from the Wing

Moral of the story, complimentary upgrades are going to be even HARDER in 2025 with the mileage upgrade overhaul.

Note: This is a confirmed change released by AA execs on the Q3 call. Therefore, it has been confirmed that the "Upgrade with Miles" system will be discontinued in early 2025. You will only be able to use miles to upgrade for a rate of 1cpp.

MAIN TAKEAWAY:

A $49 upgrade from CLT-CAE would be 4,900 miles. A $97 upgrade from CLT-CHS would be 9,700 miles. Because most TODs would fall under 10k miles, many who aren't educated on miles (ex: once a yr. flyers who aren't saving up for a vacation and simply earn miles from flying) will spend their miles on a TOD upgrade. This WOULD take away from short-haul upgrades.
BUT... FOR LONG HAUL: A $2,573 upgrade from DFW-ICN would be 257,300 miles (for confirmed) INSTEAD of the current 25,000 miles + $550 (waitlisted). Most people don't have hundreds of thousands of miles to pay for an upgrade. Therefore, SWUs will have less competition with Upgrade with Miles folks on the waitlist for intl' flights.