I remember Amex tried something like that (get $XX every month for 6 months with $XXX minimum spend) with the BCE I think it was last year. It didn't last long.
Bonuses are all about getting new sign ups who might have gone for a different card otherwise. Most people these days when they sign up for a new card they are picking from a long list of possibilities on creditkarma or wherever. You're not going to get those clicks with a crappy offer.
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With banks trying harder and harder to avoid churners, why do they still have signup bonuses that are so easy to churn. They are pretty much all "spend this much in 90 days to get this". That makes it very easy to use the card heavily when you first get it and then sock drawer or forget about it once the bonus is met. Wouldn't it make more sense to offer a bonus that's the same money, but spread over say 6 months or a year? At the end it's the same amount of money, but it might force people to keep the card in their wallet more. Just a thought.
I think a lot of the bonus structures are the same because the CC companies are competing with each other. Just like the toothpaste business or whatever. If someone offers whitening or breath freshening and it pumps up sales, then competitors will be doing the same thing in an instant.
I did have one card with the type of thinking that you suggested. It was a US Bank Business Cash card. The bonus was $500 for $4.5k spend in the first 3 months, then an additional $250 for $3k spend in the next 3 months. The total bonus was $750, I might be forgetting the exact spend limits because they were just normal spend for me so I didn't think about it. But, what it did was encouraged me to keep using the card after the initial bonus, and it was good for me because I didn't have to apply for another card.
