I read a lot of situations like that and I realized that:
It depends 100% on the intentions of the player. WHY!? Because:
If you're playing in a tournament and you're 1 position left from the prizes, and dealt AA you've come to a crossroads.
You can fold, throwing away all chances you have and any kind of pot you can win to enter the prize AND avoid a nonsense badbeat in this particular hand IF YOU REALLY NEED TO GET INTO THE PRIZES BY ANY MEANS.
Or you can tell yourself "i ain't folding a pair of aces lad" and push all-in or whatever, aim for a bigger pot, and AS WELL aim for higher places in the tournament, which implies bigger prizes.
But I think that none of these decisions are bad. They just depend on the eye of the beholder.
I hope I explained myself