I feel like they should, if only to give people confidence that such a bonus will be given. (I have had a bad experience with them taking months to post the bonus points on my SPG after achieving minimum spend. Fortunately I didn't have trouble arguing that I did qualify, but imagine what it'd be like if I actually had to prove that I was supposed to get one.)

Anyway, I'm not sure case 1 above is warranted unless someone's really abusing apps. Though since AmEx has had lifetime language for a while now, I'm not sure what would qualify.