SPG still has value in hotels but after adding category 6 and 7 and then doubling/tripling the points needed at most category 7s the high end stuff rarely is a good value. What used to be 12K in BOB went up to 120K...
So there are good in the lower categories, but the airline transfers are what keeps the value of SPG up.
Then again when I started the top Hyatts were 15K/night
At least those are still capped at 30K though.