I agree with your post for the most part. Sometimes it pays to use Chase points to purchase tickets. Last January I needed round trip business class tickets JFK to EZE (Buenos Aires). Cost of award tickets were out of sight. So I used the Chase points to purchase. For me it worked this time. Most times I will transfer to United. One point about using Chase to purchase tickets. I wound up with a discounted business class ticket so I received less AA miles than I expected.
Booking round trips next September for JFK to FCO direct using miles was exorbitant. Only way to get a reasonable redemption was doing stopovers in London. 57,500 versus 200,000 or more.
If I didn’t get the 57,500 redemption, it would probably made sense to buy the tickets,
Buying tickets for cash presents a problem if you need to cancel.