There may be a more elites, but there are more hotels for everyone to choose as well. And I'm not sure a lot of those Starwood properties will really see much of an increase in the number of elites getting free breakfast. The 4 years I was an SPG Plat, I did it with mostly with 25 stays (many of which were 1 nighters). So it really isn't that hard to get Plat. But even in the US with the Chase VISA giving you 15 nights its 35 nights to get just to Marriott Gold.

I will tell you that in my experience with Sheratons (in NA), the lounge offerings tended to be less that what the nearby FS Marriott would be offering. So after current Marriott Gold/Plats give Sheratons an initial try, I suspect they may be moving back to FS Marriotts again. There are reasons why the Sheraton brand it doing poorly. I think of them as the "Doubletree" for Starwood. IOW, if the hotel can't or doesn't want to meet the standards of any of the other FS brands, Sheraton standards are less restrictive and costly to maintain.

What I'm wondering is most of Marriott's current FS hotels tend to have lounges (as its part of their brand standard.) Outside of Sheraton, none of Starwood's other FS brands have lounges as part of their standards. So while there may be more hotels, they all don't have the same offerings.