I have flown jfk to Lhr at least ten times in the last 6 months and never had the rear facing seats, honestly having had the rear facing seats a few times over the years I don’t find them that bad

For sure if you are buying j and not looking for an upgrade ba is better, but unless you have fairly high status you have to pay for your seat assignment, plus ba has a large j cabin so unless you are in the mini cabin you are in a much larger cabin than aa, seats are the same so we are talking the door and a newer cabin