When I first made Black (that was Platinum, before it was renamed) I had some incredible rooms. One of the best was the NY Marquis, where I got a room that was about 1/6 of the entire floor (and that is a BIG floor).

However, if you are talking about the last 10 years, even though I have lifetime Plat with Marriott, I changed primarily to SPG because I got tired of not even getting a "regular" upgrade.

That said, I still like Marriott, I still stay at Marriott, I just don't expect very much on upgrades (and certainly not much more than "one category").