Masters degree competitiveness

[Soviet]

I am thinking of getting a terminal masters degree in math after a few years of working in the real world. In doing some searches it seems that a common thread in the mathematics admissions process is

Everyone applies for a PHD slot, some get it or do not

Those who do not get said PHD slot may be given a place in the masters program (with the hope of transferring to PHD later, and likely less funding).

My question is, how competitive are terminal masters programs in the US in general? I have a solid GPA, and will be taking the GRE & subject math GRE in a few months. Assuming I do well i'll just be missing strong letters of recommendation. When looking around it seems that there are some (strong...) schools who claim they only rarely admit terminal masters candidates (UW being one), and others make no mention of it at all (university of chicago web page). So, what is the state of the terminal masters in math within the US? Is it merely a 'feeder' into PHD programs and all terminal degrees are placed in the statistics field?