First, its just fearmongering, the lenders want their 2.2% merchant fees, so even if every reward program disappeared today, in 5 years they’d all be back. Also, I don’t really understand the vitriol, the CC lender is extending (temporary) credit to you, if you don’t like the terms then don’t use them.

I’d probably pay an annual fee just for the protection; I got stiffed for $10K from a “vendor” (they actually wrote me an email, ‘we are going out of business, sorry’ with a detailed list of what I wasn’t going to get). With that, I signed an affadavit and 4 weeks later I got my money back from the CC. I’m HAPPY to pay an annual premium for an insurance policy like that; all the better if they give it to me free for being a valued customer.