All cruise lines sell illusions and loyalty programs are one. Giving away trinkets and baubles is fine, but giving away revenue generators is something else. The resources on a cruise ship are limited and if you give them away, the bottom line takes a hit
Marketing programs exist to achieve a certain ROI, and have budget constraints. When they fail, spending more on them is not an option. Getting into a bidding war over bribes is never a good solution. The customer is not always right, quite often is wrong, and only worth so much.
FTTF actually subsidized some of the P/D benefits so isn't the demon some P/D members claim it to be.