They did not raise the floor. They did not make content more accessible. Veteran dungeons and trials will be more intimidating and off putting than they have been in years. Even if you were a horrible LA weaver. Even if you are awful at bar swapping. Even if you are bad at rotations and always letting DoTs expire. You are still getting nerfed. Even the most entry-level veteran content builds, like Sorcerer/Dragonknight heavy attack and Templar Jabs spam, are getting big damage nerfs.
I could see if these changes took people doing complicated rotations at 120K and dropped them to 100K, and took simpler rotations doing 60K and buffed them to 80K. That would make veteran content more appealing to average player, and make pushing on toward veteran hard modes feel possible. Like, getting from 60K for a good player to 120K for a great player is psychologically intimidating and pushes away a lot of players. Whereas having to go from 80K to 100K "feels" more accessible, even if the skill and time commitment may be the same to reach those numbers.
But dropping 120K to 90K, and 60K to 40K? It is making average players despair at even getting vet clears, and making great players despair at ever getting hard modes and achievements.
Heck, I would not be surprised if even Normal mode PUG runs out of Craglorn zone chat now become significantly harder. How in the world does that align with their stated intentions?
It seems hard to deny that ZOS have not accomplished what they claimed they want to accomplish. Why is that?
1). They are clueless to how their game works and really thought this would help raise the floor and make engagement with veteran content less scary.
2). It is an attempt to reduce server calculations and improve performance via nerfing, but they don't want to say that.
3). It is part of a planned buff/nerf cycle. They intend to let DPS slowly but surely go back up over next year or two, then they will nerf again. Repeat.
4). Something else??
They missed the mark so badly for their stated goal that it seems hard to believe. Like we are not getting the full story.