These also tend to blend together with actual concrete benefits, or perhaps more precisely they undermine the ability to rationally assess the value of the concrete benefit. That is, it's very difficult to dispassionately assess the real value of a given benefit when it is attached to some sort of achievement or status title. I've seen people willing to spend thousands on dollar runs to achieve an elite status level that would bring them only hundreds of dollars of benefits, but it has an elite title, and in my mind they fool themselves into thinking they're motivated by the concrete benefits rather than by the title/badge. This is the great strength of 'loyalty' programs, in my view, to businesses, they exploit our human temptation to irrationality.