I remember years ago complaining when they sent me an email telling me the last leg of my 3 leg journey (Manchester/Abu Dhabi/Nairobi/Kigali had been cancelled and when I rang up in a panic to find out how I was meant to complete the last leg it turned out that the time of the flight had been put back by 15 minutes 9same flight number) and that i was booked on it - I suggested to Etihad that it might have been more sensible to have informed me of that and not cause unnecessary panic
So perhaps this is Etihad practicing how they might better communicate flight changes