Except that's not consistent with the rules Marriott has set up, which require you to call Marriott reservations in the first instance. This was done in order to implement a limitation on the number of award stays a member can gift per year (five, IIRC), the idea apparently being that Marriott is able to track this since these reservations now get special handling. Further, you seem to be suggesting that the property has some power to say yay or nay to a reservation type that Marriott specifically allows and has set up specific procedures that members are supposed to follow (which do not include calling the hotel to confirm afterwards).

Again, the issues OP experienced here are all on Marriott for establishing a poorly considered set of new rules, and then totally bungling the implementation.