I am going to say this once more, hopefully for the last time.
Point Number One: In my opinion, Caesars Entertainment doesn't give one damn dime about poker or the WSOP except as a profit/loss line on the balance sheet. I will even go so far as to suggest that they are very likely to lose money on the actual WSOP itself.
Point Number Two: Caesars Entertainment is just exactly that entertainment.
Point Number Three: I believe there are two groups of people at the top of the heap, A) The players and of that group, the relatively few who are well known to the general public, and B) those members of the general public that are inclined to watch poker on the television. Which brings us to ESPN
Point Number Four: I suspect that Caesars Entertainment makes as much "Profit" from their relationship with ESPN as they do from the WSOP itself, likely more.
So, In order for the WSOP to exist, Caesars Entertainment has to make the event entertaining for those two groups, Players and Public.
If anyone bothered to read the article explaining why this change was made, I think you will agree that this was done for solely entertainment value period.
The players want to have more "fun" and the public can only take so much of Lon and Norman (even though I personally think they do a really good job with a very hard assignment) before they look for the "clicker" and change the channel.
Enough of this, I hope I have made myself clear and to the point. Just remember, the WSOP, the WPT and each and every related event is about Profit, nothing else.
Chet