this take is kinda rough to me for a few reasons.
1) this game can be punishing for new players in terms of catch up mechanisms and getting some of the earlier but critical content set up early can go a long way in getting moving in the game. this to me seems good, in that it actually lets us get to the parts of the game that are meaningful, faster. that includes nabbing other fusions, being able to save for guarantees, whatever else we want to do with compiled resources.
in the end this wasn't a free champ and folks had to do the fusion work for it. even if it was free I still think it'd have been a good thing.
I don't know about you but I don't exactly romanticize the times in which I/we had to set up killable teams, when Tayrel was a massive pull early game.
I also see whatever the changes are to Sand Devil, IT & Shogun being along the same lines.
2) with CB having auto complete, giving new(er) players the option to lop off 40+ minutes per day - if not more - seems great.
3) there are plenty of other places to learn game mechanics/synergy across a plethora of content.
4) I don't think this negatively impacts anyone and is just a net positive. yes, the majority of us had to struggle to get to the point where we were putting our 3-4 keys per day in Brutal/NM/UNM and getting top chest. I think it's good if stuff like that goes the way of the dodo and slingshots players in 2024 towards Hard DT, Hard Dungeons, Brutal/NM Hydra, etc.