I’m certainly no CG apologist but this change makes sense. Malak required more resources (F2P or $) than any single toon to date. To have him easily countered by toons that most already would have worse consequences. Would you invest heavily in a future toon if you knew there was a 50/50 shot that any scrub with a mediocre squad could trounce you?
Personally I thought the weeks just prior to Malak were great. A lot of diversity in arena. However, if the developers insist upon power creep then it at least needs to work.