I continue to be surprised at the number of travelers that think MR actually did much with the new policy other than jacking up the number of points for stays, especially week-long, high category properties (30-40% devaluation of my points).

The "no blackouts" was a smokescreen to the devaluation, making people think that the SPG "if a room is available, you can redeem it with points" (yes, I know there are exception, Mr. Pedant) policy applied when in reality it meant "if you log in early on the Sunday morning between 51 weeks and 51 weeks 6 days of your desired stay, you might get the one room available for points, if you beat the others trying the same thing".

That's why I'm current at SPG 17, MR 2 this year.