For work travel, I choose based on the following criteria (in descending importance, but all 3 are very important):

Flight schedule > Cost > Experience (aka hassle factor)

Lounge food & plane food don't matter. It is not going to be the best meal of your week.
United offers tons of nonstop options ORD-Europe, with aisle access for all Polaris seats.
Polaris seats are not fancy but you get a flat bed seat that doesn't shake (unlike AA's Safran seats that frequently show up on Europe routes).
If I can go nonstop to Europe, I leave late enough and land early enough to have 2 usable days. Flight connection would burn one of those days.
United is not a discount carrier.. for my route, they're charging $12k in business r/t without a Sat night stay.. with a terrible lounge experience and the worst onboard catering.. and ppl will still fly them.
Not sure why there's so much focus on lounge and food.