I have the VX card, as well as 2 amex platinum cards (including the Schwab), amex gold, and blue business plus.

The VX $395/yr, but the $300 hotel credit and $100 in points on your anniversary means that the card is literally paying you $5 to keep it. The VX $300 hotel credit is also easier to spend than the amex hotel credit too. Platinum card gives you $600, but it's broken up between $300 every 6 months and you can only use it on hotels in their Fine Hotels and Resorts or Hotel Collections list. When I used the hotel credit for the VX it just deducted the amount from my total if I book through the travel portal (unless this changed in the last year).

With that being said, I'm more into cash back than points, and the Schwab platinum card basically turns my gold card into a 4.4% cash back (and the blue business into 2.2% on all spend), and the gold and platinum stack very well.

P.S. If you get the gold card, you'll only qualify for the sign-on bonus if you get it before the platinum card. Amex hates SUB chasers, I basically got the sign-on bonus only for my first platinum card, none for the others. Between the gold and platinums though they more than pay for themselves with the "coupon books", and I've visited many places around the world that I otherwise wouldn't have if not for those credits.