I personally think that’s a silly move. Competitors fares are changeable including basic fares except I believe for flights originating in the us, moreover, change ability is often an implicit opportunity for airlines to make more income as by default you oook to change the existing ticket even if difference in fare is huge (which it often is near date) and it would in fact be cheaper to just get taxes back and book from scratch on a competitor (which is always the case too).

i personally think af believe both that pax are just purely fare driven and that the change will change their behaviour and make them pay up for standard which strikes me as an internal contradiction.