Absolutely agreed there. There were plenty of people who warned AA about this abuse once the HC promotion (and subsequent Kellogg's promotions) were launched. At the very least they learned not to provide EQM (miles that qualify for status) in such promotions; now, it is only possible to earn up to 10k EQM in any given year on a $450/annual fee credit card. Even that only gets one 40% of the way to Gold.

Honestly not sure that anyone at AA thought this one through.