If I had 38 nights, I would have made the push and grabbed a couple of dirt cheap nights somewhere.

As for the mentioned 150k points, that's pretty easy if you added say 5k points for £20 onto 20 or so cheap bookings (shame they don't seem to get offered on the pre-pay rates that might be 15-20% cheaper)
The lounge pass on the other hand would still need 40 nights.

As with airlines, a lot of people who pay for directly (or an employer does), may well end up getting most if not all the benefits that status would yield anyway.

OK, there are exceptions but say for an airline, you might get fast track, business desks, lounge access, seat selection etc. - the same as if I had a shiny gold card.