I agree in the sense that their hotel redemption seem expensive, and also can be -- But at the same time, their points are easier to get. SPG might be 5k per redemption, but you need to spend $5,000 to get 5k points. Sometimes you can get 6:1 Hilton Points depending where you spend your money so in that case you also need to spend $5,000 to get 30k points (same cost just represented differently)
I noticed a lot of places to be like 20-30k Hilton points to stay.