I think this is going to cause a lot of grief. Most of the recent enhancements may have been unpopular but people generally learned about the changes when they still had an element of choice in the matter (Avios increases, fees for changes, HBO fares etc). They could such up the changes or book elsewhere for example.
This one is arriving by stealth and I'm guessing the vast majority of folk will only learn about it at checkin when they realise they won't make their onward flight.