Fully agreed, and I've gotten good use of my credits every year across LatAm, rural-ish Spain, and Oman never spending more than $100 on the stay after the credit, but I was explaining "why a lot of people haven't used the credit". We are almost certainly outside the norm - willing to bend our travel plans a bit to use them, more likely to be traveling outside of the major touristy areas + seasons, and willing to check every time we are planning a trip to see if this will be "the trip" where it makes sense to use it.

How many searches have you done on AmexTravel to use the credit? I'm easily in the double digits every year. The average person is not willing to do that to potentially save $200, and likely even less so once they see what the typical FHR/THC hotels cost.