Same exact reason why we went with direct. Family of 5 and gold AP can make up difference pretty quickly.
After loosing 2 SSR contracts this summer to ROFR we went ahead and grabbed 100 direct last week. With a family of 5, gold APs every other year will make up the difference pretty quickly. We opted to spread costs between 2 credit cards with good rewards which lowered the out of pocket costs. So instead of our original plan of 150 resale points we ended up with 100 direct points with the blue card benefits. With a plan to add on in 2-3 years if we find these first 100 points work well for our family over the next few years.