Personally I've always felt loyalty programs are purely marketing based and genius marketing at that. I mean, there are entire websites based on a free program constantly talking about them, debating them, etc. Even bad press gets their name out, which drives mentions and buzz. We are a minor group of the population, my family that travel could careless about points or status. its $ cost and location almost exclusive and I know so many people where its just a "roof" over my head, because they don't plan on staying at said hotel long. They are meant to grow customers or funnel customers a specific direction advantageous to the hotel. Everyone has them now from restaurants to hotels. I personally don't let status affect my choices anymore, I had Hyatt Globalist and Diamond Status for a while. I let both lapse as work quit having me travel as much and then I got Diamond status again with Aspire. I just don't care about an upgrade or late check out, though I have rarely had a late checkout request declined even without top tier status in any hotel. Upgrades aren't very good for me without a program like Hyatt's were they are promised through Certificates. I have had weirdly good success at Hilton though once as a Gold Member with the Conrad in Chicago and this year at the Maldives Waldorf.

On a side note - Anyone threads based around programs like Amex FHR or Virtuoso? I want to learn more about all these type of programs for my cash stays, which are rare of late with the points I have accumulated to spend and FNC.