Not surprised to see this change come about in adoption of Skywards for FZ as an airline. Although, heard through a good source that FZ is about to begin utilising gates and partial operations out of T3 by Q4'18 thereby giving FZ pax an opportunity to use EK lounges as well...
I cannot say that I'm entirely happy since this codeshare business started - in comparison to past years, there are fewer valuable promotions now and J seats pricing has increased significantly (especially BKK). On the other hand, heard good things about the lie-flat seats (J class) on the 737 Max 8 and it appears that the new Max 9s and Max 10s will be introduced in good time too...
Personally, I've always enjoyed J service with FZ: for the price of Y Flex on EK, one gets Moet at the lounge in Dubai, separate boarding gate (with J bus shuttles) to the aircraft, personalised service onboard (Mumm champers served inflight) and semi-180 recline seats (lie flats on the new Max 8s). If you're lucky enough to book on a companion ticket promotion or one of those, J pricing is comparable to Y saver plus the advantage of flying into smaller EU airports...