The changes are pretty dramatic.  Not only is there ring fencing around SB and PlayersOnly, but the new tournament schedule is very different – on the one hand, there are a lot more offerings, with tons of low buy in tournaments that are better structured than before, but on the other hand the guarantees are all lower and they eviscerated the VIP system (without providing any notice) that really devalued everyone's accumulated VIP points and made effective rakeback drop for everyone across the board. 

To me this looks like part of an ongoing push by Merge to make the poker site less reg-friendly.  First they eliminated P2P transfers, then they eliminated rakeback and pushed everyone into their VIP system, then they increased rake, and now all this.  It looks like a conscious choice by the guys who run the network to make the ecosystem more inviting to recreationals (who they expect to deposit more frequently and splash around in their sportsbook) and less profitable for regs and sharks. 

And it makes sense, really.  Every US-facing site has to face the fact that it's just a matter of time before they are blown out of business.  Over the course of the next few years, more and more states will legalize and regulate on-line poker, and presumably we'll get it back on the federal level as well (that may take a bit longer but it's bound to happen).  Once you have regulated companies in the space, they will have a very vested interest in getting the unregulated companies booted from their territory.  So Merge and the other US facing sites have a limited amount of time to work with, and either need to (a) squeeze as much money as they can out of the player base (see, e.g., Lock poker) or (b) develop a different business model that will make them viable in the post-regulated environment (Merge & Bodog/Bovada growing their casual ROW poker and sportsbetting business).

You're not going to be able to pick a good option.  You have to look at all the ones available to you and choose the one that is the least worst for you.