Originally Posted by
Globaliser
What's "wasted" or "excess" about them?
TPs measure how much flying you've done in a particular membership year. You earn a year's Gold* in every membership year in which your flying amounts to 1,500 TPs or more. You don't earn a year's Gold for every 1,500 TPs flown. They're not intended to measure how much flying you did in one year plus the year before and/or the year before that etc; and they say nothing about how much flying you're going to do in the year to come.
*Ignoring for present purposes the extra time given to those who are promoted to Gold.
It does feel a bit harsh you can do 2800 points worth of flying in a single month, and still be stuck at silver, but that's a pretty contrived example.