The criteria was purely based on performance in the qualifiers stage. You lost. Ukraine won.
You seem to think to know many things... that you actually don't. This is my comment weeks ago about the format:
https://www.redcafe.net/threads/which-format-do-you-prefer.463411/page-2#post-27351637
Exactly the same I said here. If you are going to be happier thinking that I'm upset about something good for you, but that's not the reality. And you can take a look to that theme and you will see that the vast majority of people think exactly as I do.
By the way, now that you talk about 2016 (which has nothing to do with this) and you say that it is fair that the 3rd goes to the next round because you consider that there are too many good teams together.
Was it fair to go through also when you played against Iceland, Austria and Hungary back them? So many superteams in the same group deserved 3 spots too?
Ukraine was in Pot 1 because won your qualifier group. They got 3 points more than you. If they are better than you in the qualifiers, I expect them to be in a higher pot, for sure. What's unfair about it? Do you think that your shirt is worthy more than theirs even if they beat you in the qualifiers?
If you had managed to win over Ukraine it would have been like this:
Pot 1: Belgium, Italy, England, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
Pot 2: France, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, the Netherlands and Russia.
Pot 3: Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
Pot 4: Wales, Finland and the four play-off winners
Would this be bullshit? or the problem is that you wanted a spot that you didn't earn in the field just because you know... you are Portugal!