For me, it makes the game even more fun. The airline game has always forced a lot of folks to make a choice: chase status, chase rewards. Hotels not so much since most chains count reward stays towards status.
Not airlines. Now, however, for someone making a decent amount of money but not rich, the current climate can make it easy to earn rewards (easy enough--more money to spend, more appealing a customer for a bank, and easier for the cardholder to make minimum spends without having to dip into MS to a great degree) but also easy to earn status (biz class seats are generally going to get you there faster than almost any sort of coach seat and the lower prices often will tempt a purchase rather than a reward).
With where I am in my life, the game has actually become more fun to play.