I had a look via history of OMAAT's peddling hawking sale of the US current IHG Creditcard,

Returns every 2/3 weeks on an interval cycle according to disclaimer ad programming
https://onemileatatime.com/guides/ihg-premier-card/

Permanent feature under Creditcards > Review > Chase
https://onemileatatime.com/reviews/c...r-credit-card/

If you abide by the comments, there is not much interest of the OMAAT reader,

One could defend OMAAT's point: IHG is not aspirationatal, the credit cards are not lucrative

But at his latest
https://onemileatatime.com/news/ihg-credit-cards/
Readers agree with him, denoting the gap in quality versus other hotels / other premium creditcards
But in the comments it shows that there are also readers who can make the current creditcard + bonus + free night certificate work.
However their opnion is that one choose IHG-hotels for the best fit of your needs / travel plans, needing a free stay and the hotel grant benefits programwise.
NOT because urging to rush in grab only aspirational hotels and enjoying lavish status granting benefits by creditcard

And that summerizes why IHG is different from Hyatt / Marriott / Hilton / Accor
The group has a portofolio built on lower + middle range hotels,
added with
limited upper range IC (of all sorts of qualities reflective of local markets)

and only by acquisition of the following brands
- the Kimptons (strong focused in lifestyle )
- the 6S (not fully integrated but eagerly awaiting the moment)
- Regent (highest grade but slow and steady roll out)

Have started to step in complete lifestyle and luxury "aspirational" hotels needing to compete with Hilton / Hyatt / Marriott / Accor

So the current Chase creditcard still reflects the mantra, "use us, we generate you points / free night dertificate, come stay for free"
Not at all any top elite status granting focus
because the creditcard was outfitted to push guests from HI, HIX, CP to IC
( similair to AMB)
And fortunately also pushing guests to stay for free at the Indigos & Kimptons (fortunately thanks to IHG's agressive Indigo & Kimpton expansion.

Staying for free sound appealing,
But says OMAAT, IHG is not aspirational,
One only redeems for standard rooms, not premium rooms, standard suites, premium suites, so big meh!
IHG just focusing on granting free nights was because that was based on guests staying at lower / mid to treat themselves a redemption on upscale hotels or offset costs of stay for guests on the lower/mid hotels.

The mechanism that IHG applied,
to persuade hotel owners to join IHG,
was to limit redemption to standard rooms only
and hotels needing to offer only 5% of standard room inventory for redemption.

Which is a stable fit deal for all the lower / mid scale hotels and attractive for the upscale hotels.
Having only platinum status granted by creditcard, means hotels have leeway to fit award stays proper room inventorywise concerning upgrades and needing to provide limited elite benefits

Over at the competition:

I believe Hyatt allows you to redeem for any standard room as long is one is on sale + any type of room/suite
And Hilton allows you to redeem for standard rooms but also premium rooms at increased pts.
I am unsure about Marriott though....

But these three hotels chains grant top/better status by creditcard,
Causing hotel owners needing to provide free rooms programwise BUT also need to provide the complete set of top elite benefits to the growing pool of members
Which causes on FT & Bloggisphere the revealation of properties gone rogue, hotels management tone deaf and corporate powerless to act AND elite benefits exemption list growing per subject / per hotel / per brand and becoming incoherent to follow & implement.

Back to us at IHG,
So getting hotel owners to cooperate + strong empowered action rules set by IHG = essential to put in place in negotiations before 2025 when the Chase credit card agreement can be evaluated.


So could indeed all change as OP mentions with the Chase card renewal.
We have untill 2025,
Madame Doloros her crystal ball is blank, so
it could be cardstravaganza or cardmagadon......
or even discussed at VFTW's card convention : https://cardconexpo.com


And with this i will end in a neutral tone because in my honest opnion, it all depends on how IHG develops its hotel portofolio range across markets and placates their hotel owners.