Amex Gold and Platinum exist in every single market where Amex operates. No chance they will ever discontinue it.

Remove the low value customers ($500 annual spend) and pushing hard for new markets is where they are going.

They are pushing it extremely hard to CPAs, with advertisements and sponsorships all over the place, plus a preferred rate of $99 annual fee after the first year. They want people to be using the card, not churning the card.

Even with the additional competition in the US, Amex moved to a one signup per lifetime policy. Low value customers are exactly that.