[Nichlemn]

Would anyone seriously play KQs or AJs ahead of AKo in virtually any situation?

Equity against random hands is almost meaningless. The ability to select the hands one plays makes this so. AQs gains a lot equity from being a better hand to have than AKo against random unplayable hands like J5 and 84, as in that case they are functionally the same in having overcards but AQs has the suited advantage. Yet since hand selection is biased towards big cards, AKo is clearly better.

This is also why 88 and 99 aren't as great as their equity would suggest. 99 has 72% equity against random hands - but this occurs from 76% equity against all non-Broadway hands but 49% equity against Broadway hands.