As others have pointed out, Marriott, and Starwood before it, have both always had various elite earning restrictions on stays booked through third parties. What happened to the OP wasn't a "gotcha" surprise. The safest way to avoid being denied benefits / credit has always been to book through the Marriott website / app. Booking any other way is a crapshoot. So it's a bit specious to say they "don't value loyalty" based on the OP's experience. They just value it in specific ways (and not in others).