The execs don't care one iota about the customer. It is all about the bottom line. At some point somebody did a focus group and they were told that the lounges were a big draw for Amex Plat (in fact the only draw IMO). So Chase execs justify a budget to build out lounges. This year new execs inherit the program and are told to cut the budget. They reach out to PP and discover they are paying more than Amex, Cap1 etc. because of the restaurants so that's now an easy target for elimination. There is never any consideration as to what the churn will be as that's hard to calculate.

At some point they will do another focus group and figure out why they have so many non-renewals and downgrades. And at that point they will decide if they need to do a product refresh. The first inclination will be to add low cost illusory benefits that nobody really wants. Or they will copy Amex as that's easy to sell to management. Only if that fails will anybody seriously think about adding a valuable perk.

This is how business works now. Always shaft the consumer as much as you can and figure they will just take it - what are the other options?