There is SO much criticism about US F and how it's the worst F in the air... but is it really worse than any other airline domestically?

In the past couple of months I've been upfront 4 times on UA:
BOS-DEN 757
DEN-PSP CR7
BOS-ORD 319
BOS-SFO 757

Here's what I've found with UA (in comparison to US)

Pros:
FAs tend to be more attentive than US East, but on par with US West
Hot Towels on longer flights
Consistent boarding of First before the rest of the flight
F-Lite on the CR7 was pretty good - the food box was nice on a short flight and the plane/seats were very clean, comfortable
Planes are cleaner than US
Better recline than US (though you can easily be in the lap of the person behind you)
Better pitch than what US has - at least on the reconfigured 321
Closets
Glass and China in F (you get that on US West, not US East)

Cons:
From BOS-ORD, a 2.5 hour flight, there was NO food or snack served - not a pretzel or a peanut.
Bulkhead seats on the 757 have 2 inches of legroom - you're locked in place like in a torture chamber.
Bulkhead on 319 has a cutout, but you can't put your legs up like you can on the US 319/320.
Airbus F seats not as comfortable as US airbus F seats - headrest wings don't "bend"
No "bottomless" snack basket
Middle armrests are smaller than US
Only 8 F seats on the 319 so reduced upgrade opportunity

Ties:
Food is no better, no worse, no more plentiful than US
FA ratios seem to be the same (about 1 per 12-16 passengers - the 24 seat UA first has one full time FA and one who goes back and forth between F and coach.)


Conclusion:
There's a lot to be said both good and bad about both US and UA F experiences - what really makes the experience good or bad has a lot to do with the FA, the flight itself and whether or not I had to pay for it. I would not pay to fly F on United any faster than I would to fly F on US and would certainly NOT forgo a non-stop on US in F just to fly UA in F. After 4 first class trips on UA I'm not rushing to status match - it's convinced me to stick with the schedule/price that's best for me. It was a nice experience, better than being in coach, and I'll take the upgrade any day, but it wasn't any better than US F in any appreciable way.

Now for the discussion: Did I just have out of character experiences on UA or is US maybe better than we want to give them credit for? Discuss....