I have managed to maintain Star Alliance Gold status during the majority of my China run. While upgrades are rare, I now appreciate the remaining benefits.

In particular:
-the baggage limits are amazing; witness this thread; the OP would have saved himself a bundle, had he been *G and booked a *A flight
-on popular routes like SHA-PEK, *A Gold allows us to clear wait lists; a friend of mine, who spent 6 hours in Hongqiao on Friday would have been able to get here on his preferred flight if he'd been *G

Even those of you who don't fly a lot can maintain *G status by comping back and forth... as long as you get it legitimately once.