As a long time Aspire holder (converted from the original Citi Reserve card), I think I'm going with the Surpass

Sad to drop from Diamond to Gold (more of a mental thing than actual loss of benefits)

The + $50 fee is made up by having the $50x4=$200 hotel credit, even if you just use it once (which you would obviously be doing if you have a certificate)

$15K spend is reasonable.

I don't travel enough to trigger all the flight credits on the Aspire, I was only justifying it by using the additional collection trick to trigger the $250 airline credit for a flight, seems doing this quarterly would now be too much risk

I wonder if any of the cards are physical METAL like the Delta ones