I prefer LNFing the Marriott Suites in Garden Grove (for my needs, anyway, close enough to Irvine) over paying for the Hyatt in Irvine on weekdays (it's on weekdays that I need hotels in the OC, and it's on weekdays that I earn my Marriott points, and I can LNF that hotel as well as a couple others in OC, though no closer than Garden Grove, any weekday I need to).

And I have several other hotel programs, which is why I didn't notice Tokyo being poor on Marriotts. (There's a nice Comfort Hotel that's typically only 8000 CHoice points a night, so that trumps all other redemptions i've ever heard of in Tokyo, given how easy 8000 points are to earn with two cheap suburban one-night Choice stays in the US much of the year).

Well, there are places in the world (including just about any city in Norway beyond Oslo) where neiher Marriot nor SPG nor Hilton nor Hyatt will help you. In much of (beyond-the-capitals) Scandinavia, you need one or more of: Club Carlson (Radisson, etc), Choice (Clarion, etc), or Best Western. None of the other Western brands have that much of a presence in Scandinavia. Hilton HHonors tried with Scandic, but for whatever reason they parted ways and now Scandic has it own program, pretty useless to anyone who doesn't go to Scandinavia that often.)

I guess the reason I don't miss Hyatt yet is because I've joined most other programs (all the ones that have their own forum on FT except Hyatt, Accor, and Fairmont), and I've been to places where there was only an SPG and absoluteoly nothing else but then I've been to places where there was only a WyndhamRewards and absolutely nothing else, same with Choice, same with Best Western. Beyond DFW airport, I'm not sure though where there's a Hyatt and absolutely nothing else.

So while I would agree form your examples that in the world of only Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt, that sometimes Hyatt might be best. But if you want ot be covered everywhere in the world, you'll need even more programs than just those 3.

(I would suggest, for starters, if someone wants to be covered in smaller cities in the US and elsewhere, that they add at least one "budget" program -- BW, Choice, and/or Wyndham Rewards -- to their list. There's so many small towns in America, and some in key locations, that have only one or more of those and nothing else. And sometimes, due to season or events or such, they can be high on cash but low on points.)