Haven't stayed at a Marriott in 6 months shortly after the merging of the programs. Maybe the triggering point for me was cutting free breakfast for Amex Plat when Hilton and Shangri-La offer it. For many of us that pay for our own travel and don't travel every week of the year, Hilton can offer a more generous loyalty program. I stay at a mix of lower end/mid end hotels, but I usually redeem my points for the lower category hotels for outsized value. While Marriott used to offer a much better redemption value with the category 1/2 hotels compared to Hilton's variable pricing, the increase in redemption costs coupled with the SPG card earning devaluation has narrowed the gap. With constant Hilton promos like the Points Unlimited promo where you can earn at least 4k points per night if you do one night stays, Hilton Honors can get me a free night at the HGI in Singapore for the equivalent of as little as 3 nights at different Hampton Inns. And as a one-night road warrior when I do travel, Diamond status at 30 stays per year is much easier to reach than Platinum at 50 nights.
It seems to me that Marriott is trying to move more upmarket with steps such as cutting benefits for lower tier members and making it harder to get lower tier redemptions. As someone who only spends maybe $3-5k a year on hotels, I'm probably not the clientele they need to keep around. While more power to them for heavily focusing on the big spenders, one just has to question how premium you can be when you're the world's largest hotel chain by number of rooms.