I, too, have thought the same thing. There are just too many examples of changes being made to the game where the net result is fewer crystals able to be earned by the player base. And since there has been no indication from CG that this was not their intention, one can only be left to assume these changes were made to impact the crystal economy.
Assuming the above is true, there are 2 ways they could have gone about this.
- communicate to the player base that the game economy is not where they intended it to be and there are a series of changes that will be made to bring it back in line.
- do what they did and either not say anything (ie skill squish) or say they want to protect player investment in Levi, and do the exact opposite.
With option 1, players will be angry.
With option 2, players will be angry AND feel the changes were sneaky/slimy, and ultimately trust is eroded.
Option 1 would have been better for CG and the player base IMHO.