Really all they did was make the game more closely match the intended design.
As they've said many times, Splinterlands is not intended to be Free to Play, it is a Play to Earn game, and if you want to earn, you have to invest.
Basically, they just let early adopters (before the spike in growth this year) get a bit of a headstart if they wanted to try to play for free.
But really, there is no CCG out there where you can compete, much less earn/win anything, without investing a lot of money.
RE: Caustic Takes: Splinterlands - Impact of the Recent Reward Changes