Feeling ripped off by my AMEX reward program

I have an AMEX Blue card.

The industry standard is that dollar value should be 1% of points (i.e. 1000 points should be $10 in reward value). However, I realize that most people on these message boards get even better that.

Today I received a promotional email from AMEX advertising that you get 20% off rewards.

So I decide to shop and take for example a Walmart $50 gift card. They have it for 10,000 points (with promo 8,000 points).

Come on, are most American consumers that stupid that do not realize this is an awful deal. For 10,000 points you should get at least a $100 gift card, and for 8,000 points you should at least get an $80 card. AMEX is ripping us off!

Its the same, if you try to use AMEX points on say AMAZON..... you are only getting about 0.5 % instead of the industry standard of 1%.

So its about time I get a better card. I like having at least one AMEX with no annual fee but there has to be something with better fairer rewards.

I have to update that the crappy reward values apply to shopAMEX and not the regular reward site - which you can gift cards for 1% value. Of course the 20% only applies to shopAMEX.