I'll give them some credit for realizing the card needs a little spicing up.
And personally, as someone who earns Diamond the "real" way, I'm glad the high spend only gives a "bump towards" Elite and not the status itself. IMHO, why should someone you can put a lot of Corporate spend on their card get the top hotel benefits.
Just another way of sayin' that for a HOTEL company, the emphasis should stay with the beds for sale and points sold to a credit card company
But, like so many others, these changes won't increase my spend on this card other than Hyatt stays. Sapphire still trumps this card on so many levels.