Let's not confuse "hard" with "expensive." There's no minimum flying requirement, just a minimum spending requirement. Many people think $60,000 is a lot of money (I certainly do!), but others, and many companies, don't.

I would argue that any status level that requires 100,000 or so actual "butt in seat" flight miles is HARDER - not more expensive, but HARDER - to attain than one that essentially gives you status for writing a sufficiently large check.