I suspect what BA may start to do going forward is to target individual customers more. Part of the allure of making Gold so unattainable now is that they can start using special offers to tempt you to book more trips whether it's double or quadruple tier points made available to all customers or aimed at specific individuals based on your travel history, in order to fill up premium seats more. "Upgrade to business or first on this flight and we'll quadruple your tier points for the entire flight.