I have had this card for two years, and I am happy with the value overall.
I'm basically a person who does a fair amount of personal travel (8-10 roundtrips on AC metal per year) but I redeem Aeroplan points for many of these trips, so I have not had status for the past few years. I also do a small amount of NA business travel. I probably put about 100K/year on the card, including about 10K of AC spend, with some of that being OPM. Importantly, AC spend is 2 Aeroplan points per dollar on this card.
Both years, I've been able to use the Aeroplan 2-for-1 for a booking I would have wanted to make anyway. So I value the "free" 25,000 points at about $300.
I use the $200 travel credit for a travel purchase I would have made anyway (I compare prices on Amex travel to other sites when booking to ensure that Amex travel prices aren't inflated for the specific purchase). So I look at that as basically $200 cash-equivalent.
So those two things are about $500 in value.
I probably use the free bag more than 5 times per year ($30/bag). Yes it is capped at 5 bags per year in the terms and conditions. Implementation varies, however
So now we're at, at least, $650 in value.
At this point, the residual cost of $250 is similar to, if not better than, other Aeroplan premium cards. For that remainder, the MLL lounge access, priority check-in, unlimited priority pass access, insurance benefits etc. are worth it to me, personally. I understand my situation may not apply to others.