I've previously mentioned having a similar experience and should have stayed in row 3 too.
Yup I've commented on this prior. My last business class experience was a queue of economy passenger through the business cabin, a person from the flight deck PLUS three cabin crew all talking to a an "economy passenger" at the front entrance. (I think leaving 1 person in the coughpit and 1 crew at the rear.)
So many flights the crew talk at the front of the aircraft can be annoying. There should be one crew there at all times, otherwise go to the rear for a chit chat.
Nearly every flight in business I have to press the call button for a drink or a snack. In business class I feel the crew should be walking through scanning people's drinks every 20 minutes.
An upcoming business class flight which I used to points to upgrade I downgraded back to economy row 3. The flight I downgraded was Sydney - Perth and didnt think it's worth the 30,000 points (no charges being plat to downgraded, a benefit I didnt know existed until I looked it up).
The reality is that being Perth when you look at economy rewards vs business class rewards it's double the points and when you think being platinum and can get row 3, the difference is purely the toilet, onboard food and a wider seat. I'd sooner spend $50 on food drink inflight (remember lounge access on departure and arrival if still open on arrival) and save the points or double the about of flights.
I appreciate there's a cost point here. If you paying $200 for a business flight is one thing, but from Perth to the East Coast you are looking at $1,500 / $1,700 ... And yes Qantas is more expensive, but to me it's just below par.
I've laid some pretty serious complaints recently to Virgin and Velocity numerous times, they just use template email responses and can contradict which I've also reported back to them. The service level at the moment is the lowest it's ever been in my opinion.
As a plat row 3 atm, you know what to expect and I've never had a bad experience in line with expectations, just annoying walking to the back for the toilet which of course fully aware of at time of booking.
NOTE : On one flight in business the cabin crew I noticed on the paper they were writing at underneath each section (for each seat) they had "VIP" / "PLAT" or was blank. I'm plat but had "VIP" and have no idea why I was "VIP". Though my service was no different to anyone else.