We too were among the easy marks in our pre-TUG days! Purchased Marriott Fairway Villas in NJ after being shown beautiful posters of all of their locations and how easy it was to trade into them. Here I am, 6 years later, and I've learned a lot. I felt totally scammed. It's work, it's luck, waiting for trades makes it harder to get good flights on points.....
Of late, we've had some very good trades (Marbella and Newport Beach) but the first few years were awful.
As for me, while there are issues with Starwood, I prefer their system. I still get II but I have the option of also trading in-house for properties that rarely make it to II. And I know I was ridiculously lucky, but my first year I got a 3BR at St John and the second year we got Harborside!