This kind of change is not aimed at getting rid of crowding in the Amex lounges, but people are free to imagine what they wish about that.

What should also be obvious is that this change is aimed at: 1) getting Amex Plat account customers to pay for more AU cards; and, even more importantly for Amex, 2) to try to drive up a massive increase in the amount of spend being put onto Platinum card accounts. Amex wants Platinum card customers to give the Platinum cards a lot bigger walletshare than the other cards in the proverbial wallet because the biggest Plat card-related revenue (and profits) for Amex come from revenue sources that are not its annual membership fees.