There are way fewer Baymont Inns out there than Comfort Inn and Sleep Inn, especially in more rural areas.

And do you care what kind of milk? Most (though not all) Quality Inns have both 2% and skim milk, while Comfort Inn tends to have only 2%. Meanwhile, Comfort pretty consistently has hardboiled eggs (ie, real eggs, yaay!), but Quality Inn, while having for me better milk, only has powdered (ugh!) hot eggs, no thank you.

La Quinta (a) is merging with WyndhamRewards at some point (not yet clear when). Meanwhile, La Quinta hardly ever has any points promos, so it's slow earning points with them. La Quintas are also less consistent in quality than Sleep Inn, I'm not sure about compared to Comfort Inn.

Btw, status means different things at each of these programs. Status with Hilton gives the most benefits, but not if you're only ever going to stay Hampton after you get that status. And besides, with Hilton you can get useful status through a credit card (no stays needed), but again it makes no difference at Hampton.

Meanwhile, at Choice the main benefit of status is a longer reward night booking window (30 days out to 100 days depending on status domestically), but that's because booking window is a restriction at Choice (while it isn't at the other programs). And if Choice runs another "stay 2 times, get 8000 points' promo during the summer, you'll get way more points (usable for way more free nights) with Choice than with any of those other programs. (Hilton only has a double points promo for the summer.)

Meanwhile, in some rural parts of the country you'll pass through, you're only likely to find maybe Sleep, maybe Comfort, maybe only Quality Inn for Choice, maybe La Qunita and maybe not, maybe Hampton and maybe not, and other Wyndham chains like Super 8 but not likely Baymont Inn everywhere.

So I'd say Choice is the most likely one to work for you on such a trip, but you may have to choose another Choice brand (than just Comfort or Sleep) in a few places, especially in the sparse west.

Like I said, you don't need to stay at Hilton to get status at Hilton. So get a Hilton Ascend credit card and you'll have all the status you're likely to need at Hilton. So that cares of status. With that, can you stop worrying about status on this trip, because status (earned through stays on this trip) and using the same chain everywhere in sparse west are in conflict with each other!

And really, status doesn't mean much at any of these programs other than Hilton. Neither WyndhamRewards nor La Quinta Returns nor Choice Privileges givss you free breakfast anywhere you wouldn't get it otherwise, or free internet anywhere you wouldn't automatically get it otherwise, or much in the way of dependable upgrades. So the only one of the 4 you mentioned at which status has traditional benefits is Hilton, and there a $95/year credit card takes care of it all.