I thought about this new benifit a little. For me, it will decrease the total number of pay stays per year and replace it with less profitable point redemotion stays.

I think these few years, Starwood has opened more hotels - especially in China. However, the ratio of Number of Platinum members VS Number of hotels may not have grown. So maybe this is a way to increase the number of Gold and Plat members.

I do need to point out most of the new hotels seem to open in China. They are likely unprofitable due to high price compared to the local standards of living. So I speculate the number of Platinum members inside China is very low compared to the numbers in North America. So if they make it easier to qualify for gold and plat, then it may "increase" the total number of Gold members and Plat members.

Unfortunately, most of these new Gold/Plat will be in developed nations like North America.... We would be treated well in Asia where concentration of platinum members are low, but may not be treated as well in North America due to high concentration of plat members.

That's how I see it.