Scoop: OK, domestic lounge access. Haven't thought about that as I am only flying international.

Bers: I think the fastest way to OW status is through the AA PLAT challenge. One can do that in a single leg, eg. SYD-LHR.

And as we are talking C/F international here I think AA is way ahead of QF in every comparison.

Take a newcomer flying SYD-LHR return in biz (BA beds hopefully ). Around 10K miles oneway.
AA will give PLAT status even for the first leg. So you'd get: 2 * 10K * 1,25 for biz + 100% for being PLAT and 20K for converting certs. Total of 70K miles or so.

QF will give 2 * 10K * 1,25 = 25K miles and 440 status credits. That makes you only Silver after 350 credits with 610 credits still to go to Gold. And you would only earn a single upgrade credit. You'd need five for a oneway upgrade SYD-LHR.

IMHO, the new QF program isn't good for C/F pax. I'd rather put my C/F flights into an AA account.