So I just had a call from an IHG supervisor following up on the call of last month. They confirmed that status would be extended to the end of the year (which we have already worked out) and there would be some unspecified communication at an unspecified time detailing the new qualification criteria (there will be some but she couldn't discuss with me).
My feedback was that this is customer hostile and that I have zero intention of playing these games re: RA anymore and that I would be cancelling all forward bookings and shifting to alternative chains. As per my earlier post enough is enough. My $30k a year of income is probably an irrelevance in the broad scheme of things but I will not continue being treated like this.
It might well be that the new qualification criteria is better and/or that I have already qualified for next year (by any rational measure I certainly should) but until there are some tangible scheme rules I am no longer prepared to spend an additional penny at IHG hotels.