While you can try your luck to negotiate a better rate, the upgrade rates pre-Hilton and -Waldorf opening are long gone.
Back then the strategy seemed to be- to sell all the base rooms on points and then sell out upgrades, freeing up base rooms to sell again on points. Occupancy was supported by HH elites primarily on points and cash as well as the usual crowd.
Now they seem to have significant competition and instead of improving the offering, they appear to just be going to max prices for any given room above base. I’m curious to know how that’s working out for them but suspect it’s not going great.
I hope they pivot back to the old was as currently despite several million points, my next trip will probably be to Baa atoll- the points and cash use case at CMRI won’t get me a room to fit my family for much less than the same cash alone outright, elsewhere.