I think the "clogged up lounge" is more of a property issue than anything. I feel like I'm in an overcrowded lounge on maybe 1 out of 10 full-service stays. The rest of the time, the lounge is semi-busy in the morning and pretty empty at night.

Sometimes I'm the only person in the lounge. Or it's me plus one hotel employee.

Either there are fewer total elites out there than Flyertalk thinks, or most elites simply don't care to spend a ton of time in the lounge. I suspect it's a little of both. I also think that when you *do* run into a crowded lounge, the crowd is almost 100% actual frequent travelers who have "real" status. The comps are an edge case, statistically-speaking.