I had similar but not as bad. My Ti strip wore out when I was in Canada so I requested a reissue. They reissued ALL of my cards inc supps and shipped them to Canada where I was at the time. As none of my supps were at the address the cards were returned to Amex. They then repeated the exercise before finally issuing one of my plat supps as a Ti. In total I think we counted 6 Ti cards being issued.
They've always refused to issue my AC as a Ti - saying it costs them £650 a time.
As I only save MR points for airline conversions it seems it will now be pointless to spend on the Cent. May as well just keep using my BA Amex which still converts at 1.5 per £ or 3 for airline spend.
PS My RM told me the fee hike was from October but that the letter would be coming out in July. Can't say I'm impressed by the new hotels though it sounds as though there's a double bubble on Priority Pass.