There are indeed some airlines to avoid, and I do, like Air Asia/Malaysia Airlines, but equally, there are many that have excellent or very good safety records.
The only website that claims to have 'safety ratings' IIRC does not take accidents/crashes that are more than 10 years old into account. Without looking it up, a few airlines have that website's score of 7/7 for safety. I'm not 'putting dollars ahead of safety' in choosing not to fly QAN overseas.
We don't know whether with some awards - I didn't say 'all' - money changes hands or there are other 'arrangements' made out of public view. When magazines like Business Traveller poll their geographically diverse readership, in most categories Singapore Airlines/Emirates and sometimes Cathay Pacific/JAL/All Nippon Airways et al are ranked ahead of QAN.
I have plenty of friends who travel on QAN overseas: by and large they suggest service levels have declined significantly in recent years, and give me specific examples.
(20min delay)