This is a significant difference, and one that hasn't gotten much attention on the speculation threads.

If AA implements this rule, as you suggest, it would be a way to give 75K level flyers de facto higher upgrade status than 50-74K pax. (Well, sort of, since the qualifying year may not match the counter used for upgrade priority; but for flyers who fly consistent numbers of miles each year it comes close).

But - who gets hurt with a rule like this are segment qualifiers. A current AA PLT who gets there by flying midcons with connections, like 15x OKC-DFW-CLE might have under 40K EQM. And who really gets killed are the lifetime elites, who may have YTD miles very far below all the annual qualifiers.