You're not completely wrong
, but letting people who still aren't flying much keep BAEC status (people like me) wasn't just altruism on BA's part. Our 'handout' gave us incentives to continue to choose BA. That will be important for BA going forward.
If I'd dropped from Gold to Bronze over the past two years, which is what my (lack of) travel would have meant, I'd be at least theoretically open to considering the charms of LH Group or KLM/AF.
That said, I accept that I'm now likely to drop to Silver when my current year ends. But Silver's not so bad, as others have said, and will mean I keep the most important benefits for the five or six months I'll need to regain Gold.
BA is a business and not a public charity
, even though they are often "un-businesslike" and they do a lot of things that repulse their regular customers. I should add that they have a lot of company in these things with their airline competitors.
BA is continuously re-evaluating how they treat us, how much service and "free stuff" they give us in the normal course of their business operations. This is to say that their loyalty to US, their customers, is open to constant revision.
Likewise, we should always be considering the possibility of jumping ship and going with a BA competitor or alliance. It is only by holding BA and their airline partners to our set of expectations, that this whole thing works as a reciprocal relationship.
Renewing "status" for customers not flying (for whatever reason) is a goodwill gesture, but no business can afford to continue to extend goodwill gestures to current "non-customers" ad infinitum. Business is not going to continue to be conducted as it was pre-pandemic, going forward. It is obvious that some of the changes, such as use of online meetings/Zoom/whatever are going to replace a portion of what used to be regular business travel. As a result, the characteristics of the flying public will change, and BA needs to go after those people who will be filling their planes in 2023 and beyond, rather than those who filled their planes in 2019 and who may not return.