I was saddened too because it took a while to develop a relationship with my former Lancaster Ambassador rep. However, my new rep seems to be nice and I'll give her a chance before I make any judgements. Why is everyone assuming the new agents will be worse? Let's give them a chance and see.
As for Starwood... they are a publicly traded company based in a capitalistic society. As such they must manage earnings growth. This is not unusual for publicly traded companies in America. This does not mean it's the best way to go about it - but I'm surprised everyone is surprised. This is how business is currently done in the States and it's a rare publicly traded company that does it differently (although a few come to mind such as Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon).