This post doesn't make any sense even if you try to assume it's correct, because it contradicts itself. It doesn't make any sense to want Battle super-gimped and all preps removed from the game and freak out about a step in that direction.

>But over the years, I've grown tired of dealing with changes
>that so significantly impact the game I once played.

If you're afraid of change, you're playing the wrong game.

There are great games that haven't changed in twenty or even hundreds of years. Go play Super Mario Brothers. Go play chess. Wrangle up someone's grandma and play yahtzee or bingo. But if you're looking for a game that isn't ever going to change, this ain't it and never has been.

>The game
>must evolve, though, and a naturally desired result of such
>alterations is that it must bring in and keep new players.
>These changes might do just that, but it's probably going to
>be at the cost of losing many of the players who have been
>here playing the game for a long time because of the
>environment offered, that many of us had grown accustomed to
>playing.

I gather you must not read either this forum or Dioxide's and somehow have missed the ass-big-pile of older players who have complained about the problems these changes are meant to address longer and louder than anyone.