For more detail on manufactured spend, look at the Manufactured Spend sub forum. Big, easily accessible opportunities are Bluebird and Amazon Payments. Those alone should allow you to hit any sign up spend requirements.

As for points vs miles vs cash, you have to come up with your own valuation for points and miles, which could vary by airline/chain. I generally value miles at 1.5cents across the board, which is conservative. Some people say they redeem for biz/first international flights so they divide the cost of that flight by the # of miles an come up with much higher cpm valuation. For me, I know I would only book economy when paying for a ticket, hence the lower valuation. Once you've decided how much various points and miles are worth to you, you can answer any value proposition yourself. I.e., what's the best card for everyday spend? For me it's one of the 2% cashback cards. If you value, say, United miles above 1.9cpm, the Sapphire Preferred would be better than a 2% cashback card.