Overall, my sentiments echo the ones above. IT and tech issues are down, Ambassador recognition is up.
My issue is that once you hit Ambassador, Marriott has zero milestones. At 175 nights through end of July, I ended up taking a status match to Hyatt (via American) to Explorist. Should hit Globalist this week. Hyatt isnt big enough to be a primary program, but makes for an excellent secondary one - Marriott seems disinterested in motivating people away from spending elsewhere past a threshold.
As for the number of Plats - I expect it will drop a little next year. It was quite easy to double dip premerger with the linked programs. LT status is also quite easy to attain.