I think, in my opinion, you are seeing hotels waging a somewhat strike against Marriott corporate - there are certain hotels who clearly don't want guests out for free breakfasts nor want bookings on points - I suspect they want a better reimbursement policy. They are striking back hard and Marriott can't really do much about it else it loses the mgmt fees.

Hotels, like Airlines, are also practically printing money - they lose you forever, someone else takes your place.