Really all they did was make the game more closely match the intended design.
As they've said many times, Splinterlands is not intended to be Free to Play, it is a Play to Earn game, and if you want to earn, you have to invest.
Basically, they just let early adopters (before the spike in growth this year) get a bit of a headstart if they wanted to try to play for free.
But really, there is no CCG out there where you can compete, much less earn/win anything, without investing a lot of money.
That's true. But in the crypto space, everyone's always wanting something for nothing. That's why there are so many bots whenever an airdrop happens. The post is just meant to be an informational piece for anyone looking to "LAMBO" from Splinterlands without any investments.