"It will still grant the same total amount when it activates", - they said. But will it?

On Live, if you're playing with Pearls correctly, you can get 3 ult per second. And on PTS, if you're playing correctly, you are getting 100% Major Heroism uptime, which will give you 2 ult per second. It would be "the same total amount" only for healers who are bad at playing with the Pearls.

Also, do you know that the "Decisive" trait exists? It can give 1 more ult every time you're getting ult. And on Live it can proc every second, since you're getting ult from the Pearls every second, and on PTS you're getting it every 1.5 seconds. Again, that's less ult. But wait, there's more! If you have both Major and Minor Heroism, they both will give you ult as a single instance, so 4 ult per 1.5 s in one tick, it can proc Decisive only once. In other words, if you're using Heroism pots, you're Pearls would not interact with your Decisive staff at all. That's less ult. Again.

Have ZOS considered these implications? Was it all intentional? I have my doubts. This nerf doesn't look like a well-thought-out solution. It looks like ZOS has recognised that because of multiclassing into NB/Cro, Healers can get very high ultimate generation, but refuse to fix problems with multiclassing, so they've decided to nerf Pearls (and therefore punish people who don't wanna multiclass).