So I will be SE for the first time next year.

I pay my own way and can pay for J when I want to. I have made good use of PE, priority rewards and eupgrades to fly in J at PE prices so I get why they want to cut that down. I am one of those SQM heavy, usually SQD short (I changed a TPAC from reward to P fare to get SE later this year).

Now AC wants to reward me more for purchasing J

Fine, but now you are competing with the service standards of other airlines for the Signature (without Signature lounge) fares you are charging currently. I might just check out what the lowest J fares on Google are when I want to travel to decide which European city I want to stay in for a couple of nights (I got friends all over ) on my way to my destination. We shall see.

One thing is we (spouse and I) will be cancelling one of my AE cards (probably the TD VIP, horrible bank) for sure next week.