I'm constantly amused by the number of residents of the foremost capitalist fever dream who consider it unthinkable that a private company would charge some cash alongside the funny-money that they consider to be "free". In reality the miles are never free, so the addition of a cash element merely changes the equation as to whether a redemption is good value vs a cash fare.

I do agree on some other elements: finding base redemptions in J on AF/KL can be tough - though I've sworn off the aforementioned fever dream as a destination for a while so that does limit options. It seems like anywhere other than a gateway is an impossibility, which is presumably due to partner availability.