This game we are all playing has a high skill ceiling, the pursuit of which draws us in. Flattening out valuations to a precise formula, like Rapid Rewards, would surely diminish rewards program engagement. I enjoy reading FT'er stories of optimizing redemptions. After reading one such FT story, we took a family trip for 20K pt per ticket (10 years ago spanning two spring breaks) from London to Maui with a 360 day stopover in our East Coast home airport. While the point of entry stopover and flat award for Europe to US no longer exist, they were a fun and interesting feature of the program, allowing for creative itineraries.