I just don't see what you mean. Patterns? Spending habits?
I take a couple of cards every few months - the ones next on the list with best value of reward - and that becomes my primary card for all expenses. That's it.
Amex plat - value A+ (1st) - golds A (2nd) - and onward I go.
p.s. I missed the sapphire or that would have preceded the golds.
There are other factors that might be important to some people, like waived baggage fees, purchase protection, free car rental insurance, cashback/bonus rewards categories, etc etc (the list can go on forever).
There are also other factors to the 'couple of cards every few months' paradigm. It depends what issuers pull from which bureaus in your state, whether you have to freeze reports and whether it'll work for those issuers, what income you're reporting compared to your outstanding credit with that issuer etc. etc. (this list goes on and on too).
My point isn't to point out these specific factors, I'm just establishing that there's more factors than you're considering when compiling your list. Maybe your oversimplification will work for some people, but it gets more complex when you have 20+ cards open.
