I have the feeling that there is a MPO guide for members and there is one for the staff. Often the one for members shows the minimum they can do. There seems to be some additional guidelines on what the staff can do from my experience with CX, e.g. accessing CX lounge on KA flights (I believe also for Gold and Silver members too), award redemption, priority boarding with traveling party, etc.

However, in terms of the number of guests allowed for lounge accesses, there is very limited flexibity, and spending 7000 or 10000 miles for a lounge pass is really not worthwhile.

Getting back to the subject, while I never did, and probably shall never do, a mileage run for Gold or Diamond, being a high tier member is really worthwhile. I get a lot of convenience and flexibility when I fly - especially on CX and KA - and on other OW airlines as well.