I wonder if this change will drive some players to quit soccer. Specifically, for the players that fall into the following: Jan-Jul bday, bottom-end starter or bench player.
After the change, there will be a group of older Aug-Dec joining the team. Where will the Jan-Jul bottom-end player go? They can't drop down to the next year like the trapped players. Only options are to club-hop, drop to a lower level team (ENCL to ECRL, flight 1 to flight 2, etc.), or quit soccer. Club-hopping might not be a viable option as most teams will likely be going through this.
There's probably a handful or so players in this group on each team. End of they day, I think this change will really hurt this group of players.