STARS and the companion Luminous rate plan is an in house designed Marriott program which, all things being equal, should really come up first for any Marriott room division manager/front desk lead etc etc. But there are too many factors (even pre-covid) to really say that any given program will always beat another program. To add another layer, many top Virtuoso advisors are also in the Marriott STARS program. You probably can and should maintain the same Virtuoso relationship you have already OP but gently request if STARS makes more sense for your next Marriott Luxury brand booking
Awesome, thanks so much for the info!