Originally Posted by SchmutzigMSP

It sounds to me like you've basically answered your own question by eliminating OW and *A in your first post, but are reluctant to fly the extra miles on NW for comparatively fewer SWUs.

I think you really have to decide how the overall scheme is going to work for you. If your connections via Swiss and BA are too much for you and KLM works the best, then I think you have your answer, regardless of SWUs. I would just consider them icing. I would assume the NW SWUs are only good on NW metal.

SkyTeam (+standalone NW partners) seems to have a pretty good coverage of most of the world with a few glaring exceptions (but none of which you mentioned in your travel patterns, so they don't really apply). I think I'd stick with SkyTeam for now.