It wasn't an unpublished benefit, nor was it a gift from the IHG gods. It was an initiative of the hotels concerned. IHG benefits, low as they are, are the highest level it can get its hotels to (grudgingly) agree to: some go way beyond the "official" level, others find it hard even to do the the basic.

IHG has occasionally put pressure on hotels over-egging the pleasures offered to elites, to conform.

Conformity is a condition many express a wish for in these threads - but it's never going to be set at the high level they wish for.