Basically, would you rather have JAL not a part of OW, and no elite bonus, or have JAL a part of OW, and no elite bonus?
Cheers.
Exactly. If the only thing you care about is getting the bonus miles then flying JL sucks. The OW alliance provides much more benefits than that.
I remember when OW started that there were many people upset that you could not use miles to upgrade on other OW member flights. I remember all sorts of "what good is it then" posts on the board I read at the time.