It makes some sense to offer open ended packages, but not when the value of the open ended packages is far too high for anyone to consider buying it if they didn't expect to significantly overuse it. And $250k really isn't that much money in terms of first class tickets, or in the scope of an airline's cost base.

I suspect the owners of the passes were more characterised by having the sort of occupations where they could effortlessly stump up free cash, and a lot of time or requirement to travel, and probably a fondness for first class too. Most people with a mind for opportunistic life hacks don't have $250k to invest in future airline tickets.