IMHO, elite status is VERY much worth it. Most importantly for the priority treatment on the phone, at check-in, and for seat assignments - but also for the occasional opportunity to upgrade from the lowest elite tier.

I like the AA program much, much better than UA. At the Gold level, I felt that I was treated with respect - I felt like a valuable customer that AA wanted to keep. I recently reached the Plat level, and I can now get upgrades for most of my requests. Even at UA's mid-tier level, I have never felt like anything more than self-loading cargo, and rarely get treated with respect.

I don't know if you'd consider US - especially with a pending UA merger down the line - but I've always liked their FF program. They award more upgrade certificates than AA and also give each elite (even Silvers) 2 SWU's per year. Their gate agents seem to have more liberties than those at other airlines, and I've had quite a few comp. upgrades at the Gold and Silver levels. Customer service at this airline has always been good (in my experience), except at PHL.

(Pardon the sidebar into a discussion of my favorite programs.)

But to get back to the point of your question: Elite status on any airline is definitely worth it, if for no other reason than that the airlines treat non-elites very, very poorly across the board. If you run into irregular operations, sometimes it is your ONLY way of getting service.