You got me :-)
Haha, all kidding aside, you're absolutely right, but the idea that you have to "save up for travel" and then subsequently deplete that savings (the traditional way of vacationing) is the idea we're trying to dispel here. In addition to that, the drudgery of work basically completely disappears when you're only doing it 10 hours a week, so it didn't really feel like we were "working for it." Doing a little work was a welcome change of pace.
The credit card travel hacking was mostly the only "free money" part of the equation though (which was substantial!).