Apparently, it's more than just policy that prevents changing the name on the ticket-- the software actually forces the entire re-ticketing, including voiding/cancelling the first (wrong) reservation and then recreating it with the correct spelling.

I was having an award ticket issued for a friend, and they misspelled her name. In order to fix it, the miles had to be redeposited, the seat released, and the whole itinerary cancelled--just so that it could be rebuilt from scratch.

Beware doing this if the award space is limited--you might in the process lose the seat to someone on the waitlist!