The P-fare reduction and spend-increase would be more tolerable if UA also matched DL's OTHER approaches, which is earning on Partner tickets. Over the last few years, UA has really made it hard to ticket rational itineraries on 016 stock. Impossible to combine with BR. Nearly impossible to do anything with SQ. They cut the intra-Asia flights, so it's not possible to do hops within Asia on UA metal, and so you can't buy a ticket unless it's connected to your overseas leg.
Based on my last ~2 years travel, I may not actually qualify for 1K under the new rules. Which would be a real gut-punch, since my *A spend is WELL over $15k, and my miles are well over 175k. This may actually be what tips me back over to DL, since I can handily maintain Diamond there, while I may no longer be able to maintain 1K, even though I'd be flying and spending as much as ever!!
If they started playing nicely with partners, I feel this would be almost a non-event. :-/
Edit: Yes, I realize it's not JUST UA that has made this difficult. The Asian carriers have their own plating restrictions, which tied UA's hands. But that just makes it all the worse when UA refuses to give you any credit for flying in the Alliance they're increasing scraping you off onto!