I am not sure that I follow your point here, especially as lifetime Plat status on FB is much easier to achieve that lifetime Gold status on BA (which requires the equivalent in TPs of over 23 years of Gold status, albeit admittedly not continuously). In effect, they are not "wasted" only because the BA scheme is considerably less generous and requires far, far more than 10 years of Gold status. If I had the choice between a scheme in which you get BA Gold after ten years of Gold status and one, like the present one, where you get gold after accumulating 35K TPs, I know which one I (and I suspect the overwhelming majority of BAEC members) would choose in a heartbeat.