By handing out status to everyone who asks, they completely devalue the program, those of us who actually stay 75 nights start running into "sorry, our club level is full", "sorry, no award rooms are available", etc., and we leave the program.

Every request should incur an analysis of the incremental and cumulative value and impact. Sure it makes sense in some cases, but not all.

My question is what value proposition OP provided to Marriott. Just "I'm SPG PLT, so please match my status", should earn this type of a reply.