After pondering a little, I am in the "pro-change" team. My minibar consumption has historically been negligible to non-existant. Gaining free minibar (or within certain limits) is certainly convenient for me (if the lounge is close, having a minibar at hand is an option, usually the price would make me drink water instead but if it's free, why not). So I view that as nice, but a huge benefit. Also, I could be tempted to munch something from it occasionally, but it's not worth a lot to me as I only drink alcohol socially. I am pretty sure that in my case, based on my spending pattern, the minibar benefit would have been 10-15 € per year of value (real value, not the outrageous listed price of the minibar items).

Now that I get 500 USD worth of coupons, I will be tempted to use them all. Not on breakfast (it's included with Diamond mostly where I'd want to have non-lounge breakfast and the RA minimum qualification spend guarantees that every RA is Diamond) but on the occasional room service (if I want to decadently eat in pajamas) or in the restaurant. It's not _that_ often but there are some nice IC restaurants and I can see spending this amount easily in a few occasions over a year. And since I'd be eating somewhere anyway, the value for me would be much closer to the numerical amount, probably around 250 € (hotel restaurants can be overcharging, but less outrageously than minibar, as they have to compete as restaurants as well). It also makes non-lounge hotels (Kimptons?) more attractive as I wouldn't be tempted to live off the evening lounge cocktail (no net value, but the opportunity to test some new fancy hotels occasionally). Also, when staying at IC where lounge breakfast is quite sufficent and for short stays, electing to get the Diamond free drink benefit, using the f&b ambassador voucher AND one of these on top might be enough for a light meal. I can see me using that sometime. So I am pretty sure those voucher won't be wasted.

So I view this as a net positive gain for my spending pattern. I have empathy for those for whom it will be a huge downgrade, but I don't subscribe to LL's scalding review of the change in the program.