Partner status in 2020 and beyond is more about SLA tiers and how much support your account receives.

One of my accounts was with an agency that waited and waited and waited on a problem resolution for weeks without being able to get the right level of support.

My current agency resolved the issue in less than a week, flies me out to Google partner submits (pre covid) and according to their Google rep one of their people actually sits in the agency HQ (again pre covid).

There used to be volume rebates in my understanding for premier partners but nowadays it’s all service.

People hand waving the requirements are ridiculous amateurs trying to gas light us into how you don’t need it but when the going gets tough and you need support you’ll be stuck with an overseas up sell call center instead of a domestic agency rep/manager/support.