I am rather happy about the recent changes made to delegation from steem. I noticed it as well and thought “I hope someone new gets to enjoy that starting hand as much as I have.” It was a wonderful gift to have for so very long. While that does sound a little harsh for newer accounts being so limited I hope over the long term the bandwidth issues will clear up and they as well will get to enjoy the benefits of our wonderful ecosystem.

I also did some digging around and was rather thrilled as you mention people trying to abuse the free SP will also be impacted! Makes me rather disappointed when people want to abuse such a wonderful gift.