The min. payout was increased because network fees just keep going up and we are spending more than $200 a week just in auto-payout fees. Also, small transactions are bloating up the size of our bitcoin wallet which makes sending payouts very very slow. It takes our wallet over 12 hours to complete the auto-payout run now during which time we receive about a hundred "where is my money you scammers?" emails every week. The affected users will receive auto-payouts every 2 weeks now instead of 1 week so it's not really that much of a difference. Also, you should avoid receiving small payments to your wallet anyways because it just increases the fees you have to pay when you spend those small inputs.
Also the reward points needed to redeem for bonuses has been reduced by 33%!