I looked around - it seems like for upper upscale / luxury hotels in high demand areas, point requirements seemed to have gone up 10-20% - which seems in-line with what they are attempting to get with cash prices. You can still get 1 cent per point at places like W Rome, most of the Barcelona hotels, most of the Hawaii properties, a lot of NYC properties, etc.

At the end of the day - basically all programs are going to some version of dynamic pricing. With inflation having done what it has done recently, people are earning more points (via paid stays or credit card spending). Hotels cost more in cash. So points redemption costs will go up. Sure - Marriott points have been dramatically devalued the past several years. But so has the US$, Euro, Pound, Yen, whatever when it comes to buying hotel rooms.