Excellent post.
I sometimes get the feeling that Game Directors live in a vacuum. I can understand how they may think an aspect of the game isnt meant to be like this its meant to be like that. But they seem to take no account of circumstances and consequences.
Changing what people have got used to is bad. Its bad because it p****s people off.
Nobody signs up to a game because of such a change, but some people sign off. When the game is suffering from low population, it just amazes me that such changes are made. It is the death of a thousand cuts.
I picture a Game Director looking over the game after years of changes, smiling happily that at last everything is the way it is supposed to be, then saying "WTF where did the players go?"