Play to Earn doesn't mean Play for Free, or Earn the same regardless of what you pay.
We're asking new players to Pay a Lot to Earn a Lot - that seems fine to me.
This game has always said that they want to be a blend of Invest more to earn more + More skill to earn more - not one or the other.
Yeah, it seems to be 90-10 split in favor of paying more vs skill.
ETA: this change seems to be more of an admonishment of skill rather than a reward for investment. That's just my perception.
Yeah - I think I'd agree with that assessment, though I don't know if it's the intention.
Sometimes to squash exploits you squash honest people doing honest things in the process.
Accounts are flooding battles with low level cards in an unskilled way and that might be the bigger impact than the accounts that are using low level cards to higher skilled impact.
The good news is that a decrease in rewards on an individual battle that you're winning may still work out in a players favor - because increase in rating is a bigger lever on increased rewards than most other things in the game.