In my opinion, since Marriott knew about this loophole for years before closing it, basically this was a way for people to buy elite status. Marriott is getting money from these meetings. It's not like people are getting status for free this way.
Didn't Marriott allow people to buy back status with points in the past as well? This was a way to do that with money instead of points.
mingzie did procrastinate, and that contributed to the problem. A meeting on Aug. 17 didn't have much chance of posting by the 18th. It will be interesting to see what happens. The loophole is closed now. So the main way to buy status is with a Ritz or Amex luxury card now. Or I suppose that people with the old Marriott Premier Visa could get 1 night per $3K spend on top of the 15 nights per year and get status that way. But, obviously, Marriott is willing to sell status.