I guess the answer to this is for elites to avoid staying at Sheratons - or indeed any Bonvoy brand that you'd realistically expect to have a decent lounge - that have either closed their lounge or never had one. I say this not because the lack of a lounge must be a deal-breaker from an experience point of view but because the only way a given hotel will (re)open a lounge would be if the reservation data showed that it is underperforming either in its own market or against its Bonvoy peer group. That is to say, if the data indicates that the lack of a lounge is resulting in measurably fewer elites who book direct or lower occupancy overall than Marriott would expect from the hotel. Otherwise, if it already has the expected occupancy and elites then why would a hotel bother with a lounge at all? If we all moan about the absence of a lounge but keep staying at them then there's no incentive to change. Thankfully I live in SE Asia so this isn't a problem for me.