For the most part I happen to agree with your long term conclusions.  If I had any Smerit I would give it to you.  The implementation was a bit faulty cause many members got screwed during the switch.  Some were 2 activities away from a new rank that has been here 6 months and is now the equivalent of someone who just got the same rank yesterday.  My personal feeling is that for something this drastic just give everyone the next rank and I think most people would have been fine with the change.  Doing it this way feels like a kick to the teeth to the people who played by the previous rules.