Good article.
In fairness to the typical program user, you can understand why they get frustrated with the program. For large numbers of people, premium cabins on long-haul routes are the point of points accumulation (whether aided by Qantas marketing or not). There is a massive, massive cohort who don't really care about most of the routes listed in that article — they don't have much interest in a business class seat on a 3 hour flight to NZ or domestic flight within the US* — but do care about getting a business class seat for the 24 hour trek to Europe/North America. Indeed, that help explains why there is no availability — that's where all the demand is!
It's cold comfort to tell someone that they can use their points on this other thing that they have no interest in.
* And some of the better routes listed in this article are fleeting — eg the SYD-JNB route is currently experiencing great award availability due to the upgauge, but has historically been a very hard route to find premium cabin availability.
