Thanks for the reply, I'd basically figured it out as I was posting - the crux of the issue is I had thought I'd read that the connection availability was calculated against QR operated flights so understood STPC would apply.

It's only now that I see that is not the case (again I admit my oversight) that I started to ruminate on 'the spirit of the program'....you have to pick the start and end of a day somewhere and I guess we have settled on midnight. In travel I usually think of 6am flights being the early morning flights and 3am the late night one so had that in mind. FYI the flight was no cheaper than the 3am alternative and wouldn't even say it's objectively any more or less convenient as some folks have no problem sleeping on a plane and would prefer to get hour 12 hours earlier. This late into the frequent flier year, when status has been secured, I'd have booked TG if I'd known there's no free stopover and no reasonably priced options....this is not meant to be some idle threat but highlighting a potential business reason for QR to offer the stopover to capture market share...I don't believe them to be mugs nor a charity in expecting free stuff.