I haven't flown for around a year... but last time I did, I'm sure *A Silver let me have priority check-in and priority boarding. Now the *A website shows those as being Gold perks only, and Silver is almost completely worthless. I don't recall Silver having so few advantages previously. Is my memory wrong, or has Silver been downgraded over the last year?

Your memory is wrong... *S has always been worthless

IIRC, some airlines did offer "priority boarding" for silver ahead of GM. I am not sure if they still do or no longer. In any case, silver was/is quite worthless.

Edit: I think it was just United that offered "priority boarding" for premiers. I don't recall having been offered priority boarding on ANA or Asiana as *A Silver.

I thought that Silver status always allowed check-in at business class counters -- a far more valuable amenity, in my opinion, than priority boarding, which is never consistent anyway.

If they dropped that, then that is a pretty significant degradation -- it is/was really the only benefit of Silver status.

I don't know about "always allow check-in at business class counters" part.

IIRC, when I flew Asiana last time, I was a bit confused because Asiana had checking lines for Asiana Club Gold and Asiana Club Diamond, etc. It turned out that Asiana Club Gold was equivalent to Star Alliance Silver, so the Star Alliance Silvers + Asiana Club Gold members were able to use that line, but it certainly wasn't the business class check in counter.

True, some carriers might have it divided differently, but at least it is a dedicated check-in different from the masses.

I've found that *S is treated quite well on UA, and UA only (not sure about US? Definitely not on most other *A airlines though.), so IMO there's some value there especially if you're USA-based and fly UA quite often. When I was still only *S, I was already getting markedly better service from UA staff, plus some perks:

-Priority check-in at the business counter
-Waived checked baggage fee ($25) for my first bag
-Priority boarding (but behind higher-status pax of course - UA does boarding in ordered boarding groups - so I'd dispute that it's "not consistent")
-And priority security (at some airports, e.g. LGA).

But of course the *G experience is much better, especially as it's far more consistently offered across the whole network.

*S will probably get you business class check-in on airlines using your particular FFP, but it's definitely not valid across the entire *A and not a published benefit.

I think you are right.... the list of silver benefits seems awfully short on the *A website. But as others have mentioned, most airlines offer a little more.

I got priority at the security at PHX with SK Silver which helped a lot since the regular lines were huge.
Getting an extra bag with SK and business check in when flying SK I am happy with, just starting to travel a lot but silver is better than nothing and I am looking forward to gold