one of those elites that's never flown CO before but gets status due to CO giving it to them (as mentioned, to close a deal or something like that)

IF, those wallet candy elites get 2% of the upgrades, and they fly 1/10th as much as a real elite, then they're 20% of the platinum population, and that's pretty damn high O(10k) comped elites.
While real elites get the vast majority of upgrades, 2% of the total upgrades is a lot for people who aren't flying CO day in and day out.

Its easy to massage numbers to give the message you want them to give.
Like the example of BF rewards, up 17% relative to 2003, but we didn't inquire as to if its # or #/available seats. because the # of available seats has gone up 20%, and then you're down 2.5% or so Y/Y