I'm not convinced. I suspect that a lot of people have erroneously had elite years count from the MR/SPG status matching for linked accounts and for certain comped years that shouldn't count (such as SPG status from having an AmEx Plat/Centurion credit card). There could also be problems in the coding regarding counting legacy MR Gold (50+ nights) years as Plat years. It's also unclear whether years of lifetime status where the status level wasn't earned during the year should count, although this probably doesn't effect qualification for lifetime status levels.

OTOH, this might be an example: Suppose someone joined MR very long ago and earned MR LTG about a dozen years ago and since then has reached 750+ nights but never reached 50+ nights in a given year since qualifying for LTG (based on nights, points, and total years in the MR program) and never reached enough total lifetime points to receive legacy MR LTP. Do we would have someone with two or three earned Plat years (75+nights, and actually way over a hundred nights during each of these years) and a a dozen unearned Gold years (due to LTG status), where this was Gold in the legacy MR program, so that the comped years were at the 50+ nights level. Does this person get LTPP based on 750+ MR nights and more than ten "Plat" years from the couple years of genuine earned legacy MR Plat status and all of those comped (due to lifetime status) legacy MR Gold years? Admittedly, this would be an extreme case of someone having several years in the distant past of hundreds of nights with lots of spend followed by about a decade of not very many nights and not very much spend. It would also be someone who has been a MR member for more than two decades, so maybe the person is old enough that no one has to worry about this person taking very many upgrades for long even if LTPP is granted.