The fee only applies if you change, refund, or redeposit (just like any other revenue fare). There does not appear to be any additional fee simply for making the booking.

The negative thing is that Platinums are not exempt from the redeposit fee on the PerkChoice ticket, even though they normally would be exempt if it were a PerkSaver/PerkChoice award ticket.

OTOH, the T&C are pretty clear, and I don't have much sympathy for people that don't read the fine print. Devil's in the details and all that... No one's forcing you to use this option, but I do applaud the fact that there are options that don't exist on other carriers.