Originally Posted by stephem

Because the US is different. But even if they cut down the sign up bonuses (which I personally haven't gotten in about 5 years), there is the day to day running of all your legitimate expenses through (which is 1 or 2 miles per USD), buying miles for dirt cheap through AA or AS and (something I don't bother with) manufactured spend. You may have a gripe with the consumer focus that everyone including banks has that results in them sharing some of the 2-4% they generate through all of our transactions, but that is the way things have been here for a long time. I recall living in Singapore and being happy to get a 10k signup bonus last decade, there was a brief blip of bigger signup bonuses outside the US but just because those days are gone doesn't mean the US bonuses (or general ability to rack up miles with credit card spend or outright buy) will disappear.
But again, this is a sideshow to your real gripe, your hometown airline has a bunch of not so customer friendly policies (like fees) and the US carriers don't have those.