I want to start by saying the pay buffs to combat are long overdue, good, and welcome.
That said, I think this largely kills AX combat for me.
It's difficult to overstate how much I dislike grinding Guardian unlocks, and combat has always been a distant 3rd thing for me in Elite, though recently I'd started dipping my toes in some more after 2.5 years of doing mainly exploration and trade.
Scout hunting didn't require a whole lot of up-front investment, and the rank progression from it felt reasonable, even though I knew it'd take me several thousand kills to get there from Competent. I knew it wasn't going to be quick, but it actually made me think Elite combat might someday be attainable. It was something to work on here and there, taking an hour or two on a random evening as the mood struck me among all the other things I usually do.
But with the nerf to rank, I'll probably just end up selling off or repurposing my AX Krait and once more give up on any thoughts of reaching combat Elite. It was too much of a grind as it was, but it at least felt attainable. And I don't enjoy it enough to put in the amount of slog required to ever get there 'organically'.
I suppose that just makes me "too casual" or something, but other Elite ranks can be realistically attained with a couple of years of normal, casual, and varied gameplay. That combat can not feels rather out of place. It's a bit discouraging, overall.
In short, I think something is very broken with combat progression, and people gravitating toward the least painful method is simply a symptom of the deeper problem. Closing off that path doesn't fix anything, and arguably makes the overall situation worse.
Take it for what you will, I'll likely still be around doing something else, somewhere.
