There is something to be said about granting status based on actual spend. For example, I saw a post on FT recently that said that a person had made PM this year with under 6K in spending, and tarajim a few posts above says that she/he has 200K MQMs with only 20K in spending. I am currently at 8K in spending this year and only have 44K MQMs. Most of my flights are under 2000 miles r/t and booked in Y/B/M/A.

Does that make me a better customer? Absolutely not, it just makes me different than the others. If Delta is just giving Gold to everyone that makes 75% of its 50 K threshold irrespective of other considerations, that's just plain silly. I doubt they are doing that. Delta is well served to keep some discretion here to look at the $$$ as one factor in my view.