Just wanted to point out that the miles are by no means "free in the first place," nor are they "given," strictly speaking. Airline loyalty programs are subsidized by ticket sales; in other words, CALGal, we're all paying for our miles just as surely as we're writing your paycheck. (Incidentally, I think it's quite ironic that people often talk about "earning" miles.)

Please don't take this personally--I tend to agree with parts of your argument, but hope that you understand that one reason people get so worked up about all this is that the miles, not to mention the myriad other promised benefits of OP, are paid for. Now, the fact that much of the time we ain't paying all that much is a different story entirely...