I have been a WGT member for a good while. Started in the fall of 2009 so I have seen changes, both good and bad come along.
I never paid any attention to the elite collection. My goal was never to amass credits to buy something on WGT, it was to enjoy myself and make new online friends. I have amassed a good number of credits from time to time and I try to keep enough in stock to play any tournaments I want too, keep myself in equipment and balls. The rest I try to give away to friends, deserving players, etc. I gave away about 25k in credits during Christmas and probably another 10k since the new year.
I have heard people mention taking payments for credits via Pay Pal. I assume they will accept a payment and buy you what you want or lose a challenge game to you. I have no idea what the going rate for this is but I assume it is under 50%. I also have no idea as to what WGT thinks about this, obviously it is not to their advantage but I don't see how it can be a violation of the rules and agreements.
If you are an elite player who is playing only to cash in your credits for a round of golf, an amazon gift card, etc. then the changes in the Elite collection probably suck for you, however if you are like 99% of the WGT players, those prizes mean nothing to you and you don't care what the fuss is about.
In terms of WGT looking over the top players to see what they use their credits for, of course they can do so, you can look at what every single player spends his credits on when you have them purchase those items through WGT. I don't see what matters about that, do you not think that every single online retailer does this.