It would be interesting to know exactly what a property actually pays when crediting stays and/or points.

From a conceptual standpoint, if one is to be rewarded for "staying" a certain number of times or nights, there is some sense in crediting all paid stays or nights. From a business standpoint, however, I can imagine that this might tend to reduce the number of people using the Starwood website for bookings. Let's see what the new rate matching policy does to make this a moot point (I hope).