Reminds me of the people who suffer some perceived slight and say that they'll never fly airline XX again. Until XX has the cheapest or most convenient flight.

ِAgreed. Common sense should always play a role. But then again, that's just my opnion.

True. But whether that applies here is impossible to judge without knowing all the details.

I can think of scenarios that lead to 30k spend and 98 nights where I would say that an exception definitely makes sense, but others where that would be less so.

I just don't understand why the person with 98 nights didn't do a weekend mattress run for the final two nights, if they were truly interested in obtaining AMB status.

Yes, that's one of the aspects that I am referring to. There is a big difference between

1) Lots of stays throughout the year with consistent spend of $300-400 per night, then happened to be a no-show for a booking in late December due to a flight disruption; or

2) Accrued lots of credit card nights and a few stays during a double nights promotion, while most of the 30k spend comes from one RC cruise, then decides a couple of months into the next year to ask for an exception.

These are extreme examples, but that's why I find it difficult to say that it's outright "correct" or "wrong" not to grant the status just based on nights&spend figures.

For what its worth, during the SPG days, I was part of the ambassador "secret" program in 2009 after completing one stay that year at the W Maldives. This was definitely due to spending as I couldn't think of anything else. I received the email a week or two after that stay which was in Q2 if I recall correctly.