I agree to some extend... I think we are going along the long road/hill of the effective dismantling/stripping of FF programs in general. Sure they may offer a few limited perks, however airlines themselves are actively commoditizing their own product. That results in little distinguishing differences between the airline products, and as a result drives more and more people to pick solely based on price.

As FF programs become less and less of an incentive, the ability for airlines to influence customers' price discrimination diminishes, so instead of pax looking for the best options from DL or AA or whoever, they will be looking at the best options from Expedia regardless of carrier etc.