Given the influx of people who have/will become entitled to lounge access as a result of this change, I think the quality of lounges at key ICs are at a significant risk of a fairly steep nose dive. Thinking of it, smaller lounges may not even be physically big enough to accommodate everyone who is now eligible for access.

If this happens, then it will be a double whammy for the hotels as people who previously used to pay for lounge access may stop doing so on account of lower quality offerings and/or crowdedness, so that it becomes essentially just a status lounge, prompting a further decline in the quality of offerings.