100% agree. I'm sorry, didn't mean to freak you out but I will never forget an experience I had with Amex years ago when I was living in the US.

I was traveling in Mexico and was hosting an event and tried to charge a large amount. Bang. Not only did they refuse but they suspended my spending privileges.
They asked me for tax returns, 6 months of bank statements, etc etc etc... which I provided and they closed my account anyway. High spender, paid every month, finances were in order.

I came to learn later that in the US "review" means they made up their mind for whatever reason to cut you off. Someone, somewhere in their structure determined I was some kind of risk...

So risky that someone else, on a different floor, *literally* two weeks later called me in the office with an invitation... 100K MR points and no fee "to get my business back" as I was a "such a valuable customer". I didn't say anything... I took the points, flew in F on SQ to SYD (when that was even feasible) with lots of Krug in celebration of their ineptitude for 140K on DL (those were the days...).

Moral of the story... never trust Amex. They can seem wonderful and then they turn into the nastiest demon ever in a matter of hours. And as we have seen, their "enhancements" in France have been to cut away at benefits... and to put pressure on their establishments to provide benefits (you can be sure Amex won't pay anything...) to offset their cheapening of their premium products in particular.

I completely share your assessment of Amex wanting more and more information. And I won't be surprised if they take advantage of this new legislation (if indeed this is true) to ask for more financial information. Let's hope that "enhancement" isn't coming.