Should start community poll see how many people agree; Should there just be one big patch instead of like 5 small ones?
They could legitimately do this I reckon if they started communicating to the community (videos, tutorials etc) about the intended or altered game mechanics that everyone can familiarize themselves with. This could effectively be the start of a second phase in the games development. And future balance patches could tweak from there onwards...
Their way of communicating makes me sad sometimes, and happy other times. They have yet to figure out that talking with a straight face instead of hiding behind the mask of NDA NDA NDA and "We can't reveal this obvious change" makes me want to say "Relic pls" every time. If they were more upfront about the whole ordeal beforehand and more willing to engage in constructive community talks then I would gladly take their communication more seriously.
But instead most times we either get: OR OVER-HYPE that ends with us doing this or this