Sure Joe is a bit of a curmudgeon, but he often nails some key issues. His "Why we love Coke and hate the airlines" essay a few years ago was one of the funniest and inightful things I've read about the airlines.
BTW, I agree that the value is decreasing. I haven't found a restricted/saver award for quite a while, but of course the standard awards are easily available on the same flights. The "prices" for free travel have been raised without really changing their published structure.