As you say, that change didn't make much sense only hitting the O-A visa.
In the end they must have lost a lot of nights spent in Thailand on that move. For my self I just spend a fraction of the time I used to spend in Thailand since they made that change. Hope they change it back, I still like Thailand. But I wont spend money on insurance for months I don't stay in Thailand, And that is what you end up doing if you want to get an O-A visa right now.