Are hotel rewards programs still what they use to be? I find the amenity provided by being "Gold", "Platinum" or what have you is becoming far less valuable by the day, especially compared to the excellent benefits you get from airlines. 

You're getting a bit far ahead of things here. The changes haven't even been proposed yet. If they do ultimately become implemented, it is an obvious move for airlines to move some meeting rooms landside, for more amenities to pop-up landside, etc. 

Come on mate, how many people do you really think would commit a serious fraud like that just for some more status credits? No one would be that stupid.

Hyperbole aside, it's ridiculous you can board a plane without showing ID at any stage in the process.   As to your point about checking passenger records against databases, the airlines are already co-operating on this front. Checking IDs will "close the loop", so to speak.