[loeg]

Mostly agree — except you don't have to manufacture spend or know anything about that for it still to be well worth it vs points cards. And at the level of spend where you only get "one or two free tickets from card signup bonuses," you aren't getting even a single flight on a points card, so I'm not sure why that's relevant.

Yeah, the value is mostly there if you can redeem for travel annually. Cash redemptions usually require taking a haircut of some kind (to incentivize consumers keeping points in the inherently depreciative system).