Regarding Doc's scenario of the sneaky & nefarious using 7 day reservations to get a jump on others, well if it is within the rules as currently understood, then it is no more "gaming the system" than is the current practice of calling day-by-day to ensure one gets what one wants. Neither is "bad", just members using the rules to their advantage. As long as there isn't a rule against it, everyone is free to make 7 day reservations and cancel the Fri-Sat portion just as everyone is currently free to make day-by-day calls.
Probably not even worth $.02, but that's how I see it.
Actually Doc's scenario IS different than calling day-by-day under the current rules because it involves booking nights you DO NOT WANT OR PLAN TO USE to get a better chance at nights you do want. There is absolutely no advantage to this under the current rules. It definitely rewards those who have more points and can book more "spec" bookings with little or no risk.
And the cure for this "scenario" may be worse than the disease. From time to time, we have had plans change and have dropped nights from our reservation. For example, we planned to arrive on Firday, but airfare was substantially cheaper on Saturday, so we want to arrive a day later. Having 7 nights cancel just because you need to drop a single night seems unfair in the extreme. Sure looks like the system is moving more towards encouraging 7 night stays.
I undersand that Worldmark has a similar system, with no requirement that all 7 nights be at the same resort, but nights cannot be cancelled from the reservation. To get the high demand nights, members book the cheapest possible nights for the nights they don't plan to stay in order to guarantee that they have the first opportunity book the nights they really want. With a "no cancellation policy" as suggested, value studios may get booked for Fri/Sat night stays as the "cost" of getting advance booking for the Sun-TH 2 BR concierge reservation.
And, of course, there are lots of questions still to be answered about this new booking policy. If the first night is unavailable, can you still book the remaining 6 nights? After booking 7 nights, can you call the next day to get an eighth day, and then the next night for a ninth day and so-on?
I agree that the old system gave every member a level playing field. -- Suzanne