Imagine a scenario where
1. A person in China who doesn't care about status might pay a discounted rate to have a room for 20-30 days or so.
2. The manager at the hotel might offer a small commission to have the room occupied (almost like a travel agent commission).
3. Finally, the person masterminding all of this is also able to sell platinum status for the room on eBay.
That could conceivably be 3 streams of revenue for the same room.
Or if a person doesn't mind being a nomad, that could be a rent free existence. Just move from hotel room to hotel room earning status for someone else. That could be an interesting enterprise.
From the point of view of the person paying for status, I agree with others here. $1500 for plat status wouldn't be worth it to me. But everyone values things like this differently.