Cautionary, what I'm about to say may be considered somewhat controversial and may offend a few folks on this forum. It is my understanding that Ron was a megarenter, one of a handful who owned tens of millions of points. I would say it's a real stretch to say that there was no collusion and/or scheming ongoing during the period when megarenters were actively working the system (and to be clear - I'm not saying Ron falls into this category - but he's the only one I happen to know of and is on this forum). Suffice it to say, that according to my understanding, a subset of these megarenters were sued by Wyndham. Most settled out of court, with conditions under NDA, and at least some have been banned for life from Wyndham ownership as part of the settlement agreement. I would say there was probably enough legal evidence that the megarenters were in fact gaming the system and violating legal terms and conditions, such that Wyndham was able to pursue remedies legally. Were the megarenters treated unfairly? Was Wyndham strong arming people who didn't have deep pockets to mount legal defenses? I honestly have no idea either way, since this all occurred well prior to my ever finding this forum.
That said, I will say that just because we can do such things, does not mean we should. We all make choices in the end. The problem with gaming any system, is that eventually something will be done to remedy the loopholes that allowed for the manipulation of the system in the first place. In most cases, the changes made to limit and to protect the system, make the rest of us who made the choice not to game the system, collectively suffer negative consequences in the process. Don't get me wrong, I admire the chutzpah to figure out how any system works and then to figure out a way to game the system. But if I'm honest, I believe to do so is ultimately not a good thing. I'm sure others would disagree though.
I've seen many owners on this forum who have been around Wyndham for a long time, and the general consensus is that Wyndham isn't what it once was, that the benefits are not what they used to be, and that the system doesn't work nearly as well as it did in the past. I'm sure a portion of these complaints are simply people who long for the olden days so to speak, and a portion is probably Wyndham getting greedy because they are the big timeshare gorilla in the industry vertical and, well, simply because they can do what they want within reason. But another portion is probably also due to those who gamed the system and therefore motivated the company in question, Wyndham, to build in a plethora of system limits and protections that have negatively impacted otherwise innocent owners who are simply trying to use the system as it was always intended, to take family vacations on a regular basis without too much effort and on generally good terms, and without breaking the bank in the process.