For me it's the other way round: the select miles brought me free Hilton Gold membership, EUR 200 in purchase vouchers and 4 senator lounge vouchers (each of which were great gifts for friends) as well as two frist class upgrades. Whereas I couldn't care less what's printed on my card. And based on what you see people spending on ebay for baggage tags with one, two or three starts you see that other people do care a lot about this prestige/star stuff. Bottom line: LH is indeed satisfying different people's needs both with the status stars and the select miles.