Higher Annual Fee For Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card From American Express

According to Ron Lieber at the NYT Bucks Blog:

American Express is raising the annual fee on the Starwood card to $65 from $45

I wonder if these reward cards really provide more value than the 2% Fidelity cash-back credit card or PenFed's cash-back card that gives 5% cash back for gas, 2% at grocery stores and 1% elsewhere. Ron Lieber makes the case that this card is still a good value even with the higher annual fee.