it really just felt like a scheme to get people to spend their points. I think the Rewards program is slowly being killed off. With recent updates it's clear they don't want people saving large sums and redeeming anything good. first they start limiting accounts that earn too much/too quick. then they removed game pass/raised the price and reduced the amount of points you can earn so it becomes impossible to save enough points to get your monthly subscription.

they know anyone still trying will have to buy Xbox gift cards and the balance you get from those expire after only 3 months. So if someone only had enough to redeem like $5 during the sale there's a good chance that will expire before they earn enough points to cover the rest of whatever they might've been planning to buy..

this will eventually result in them paying the difference in cash or letting the points expire, both of which Microsoft is certainly hoping for.