First time poster, long time lurker

Trying to decide which option is better:

Currently I have a trip that I booked to TPE in December that I used 90k Miles to book. I'm debating whether to keep this, or cancel it and book the same trip for ~$1200.

Couple factors that made me consider this: I've made Gold on Continental, but won't make Plat this year after 5 years of making Plat. Calculating the miles if I purchase the ticket, (trip to TPE is Dec 8th, and from TPE is Dec 19th) and only having the first part of the trip qualifying for the DEQM, I will have enough EQM miles to make Plat for next year.

Couple of things I'm also considering is:

-Being a Gold, Reward Ticket change fees are $25 after December vs $150 before (plat is free)

-I would earn 30k miles for the trip that I wouldn't have with the reward ticket.

-The amount of traveling I will do next year is a wild card, so plat vs gold upgrade changes won't factor in too much here

Would it be worth it to buy the ticket instead and cancel the reward to make Plat. especially now that they reduced the Plat mileage bonus to 100% (same as Gold now). Not sure what the chances of them reducing Gold next year, or upping Plat back up are.

TIA