Ruin the Arena experience?

I've been able to retain my rank in both my accounts after patch until two hours after prize giving time when I noticed changes. For me the important time is about ten to twenty mins before prize giving time.

At the moment I hate it completely. Time will tell though.

It was not a good idea because now there is even less of a reason to worry about how ones team is able to defend its position. The developers needed to either keep it blind or give defending teams support.
That said, I already know who all my opponents have and can guess their squad composition pretty well. I use the same 5 characters every battle (only have 5×7*s) so i am quite sure this has zero effecton me, since whoever is attacking me is almost certainly not doing jt for the 1st time (i finizh 1-6).
So, while i like browsing my opponents characters, and while this really does not effect my Arena experience, I think keeping it blind was the better option, especially since defending was well nigh impossible in the 1st place.

About the defense, it doesn't exist as a concept. You can't know which squad will defense you. The last team used to attack? or what ? If you plan to change your characters based on your next battle you will never have a "defensive" squad

only thing I can tell is who spent money/really lucky and those that haven't... i.e. ones that have a high level poe and other characters and ones that don't... Beyond that all it's told me is who is easier to attack which is more informative than the straight power ratings...

But yep doesn't stop people from attacking you if you field a weak team or one that lacks synergy...

If anything I lost the surprise that was waiting for me when I attacked a team... Now I know exactly what to expect every time.. which in my view is boring..

It hasn't changed how I deal with groups, all it's done is change who I am more likely to attack... i.e. easy wins over difficult ones

I like seeing the whole team but ever since the update I lose every match to teams I easily beat before. What is going on??? As an example I lost to a team of mostly 6 stars at level 63. My team is mostly 7 stars at level 68!

Nope its perfect it gives you the chance to switch out characters to make the neccessary counters to beat that team. Your current team might not hold well with certain teams this gives you the chance to make the neccessary adjustments. As of now it may not seem like much but when we have collected 15-20 characters we'll be able to switch it up.

I think it's a good idea. With the speed leaderships applying the first turn the meta will probably shift or become more diverse. Seeing the opposition gives you an opportunity to prepare the right squad.
It sucks right now, because everything is about poe. But in a few weeks teams will be more diverse.

For me this improves the arena experience.

What ruins it is having the opponent's entire team have their first turn before I get a single attack.

Yes this is a big mistake...