It has absolutely been a negative for the industry. I don't bother touching Goose Island outside of their annual release of their Bourbon County stouts - the beer now is watered down and made for the masses. Goose Island IPA used to be a really solid, fully-bodied coppery IPA - now it's very generic. Elysian - also a negative; Space Dust IPA is the most widely-distributed, and it's basically what Goose Island IPA used to be - a negative in my view, since Elysian was much better. Paradoxically, Elysian now has much worse distribution of its other brands to the East Coast than it used to. Immortal IPA was the first 'real' IPA that got me hooked on IPAs - I haven't seen it in years.

My hunch is that macros buy micros, choose one 'flagship' brand (e.g. Goose IPA, Space Dust) to sell to the masses, and everything else becomes really hard to find or simply doesn't exist. I would say that my criticism is more aimed towards American macros; for example, Ommegang is owned by Duvel, but there is always a good variety of their beers to find, and Three Philosophers will get you plenty ripped as it always has (in a good way). I would also add that micros who became big and outsourced brewing have also worsened - I will never drink any of Stone Brewing's beers that they make in Virginia; they all taste terrible.