alternate_fire

It's a small point, but note that the Blizzard forum post linked in the article isn't actually from a developer. Eyonix is a Community Moderator, and serves as an intermediary between the forum-going WoW community and the development team. When CMs make posts like this, it is generally understood that they are relaying the thoughts and intentions of the development team (with a few exceptions); but CMs are not actually developers.

Generally the development team does not directly communicate with the WoW community. They use the CMs as (scapegoats?) buffers (and who can blame them, as much of the customer base seemingly has no qualms with shooting the proverbial messenger?). The noted exception to this is lead designer Jeff Kaplan, who posts with some frequency in the WoW Raid & Dungeon forum under the name Tigole.

As to the content: Easing the development cycle of the game is a positive thing in the long run, for Blizzard and for their customers. This change will help remove weight from (but certainly not render weightless) the near-constant barrage of factional favoritism accusations in both PvE and PvP settings. In short, it's one less problem for the dev team to think about.

Do the players suffer in the short term? Maybe. It's difficult to remain objective on this point, as there is a part of me that believes that to log in to WoW is to invite a sort of insidious, seductive, wasting disease into your brain; a delicious crippling of one's perception that will blur the line between pleasure center and pain receptor.

So the players will suffer with or without this change. Whether or not their raid schedule allows them time to notice is the question.