So what's the consensus so far on the beta forum itself?
I don't see a consensus yet, but I think I see how it will go. Players who normally do the 2nd star of lots of provinces for the KP are upset. Players whose fellowships are unbalanced in getting points are upset. Many players are both of these. That 5k or 6k or 8k points from doing dozens of provinces will no longer be possible without very heavy losses, so those players that support their fellowships cannot any more. But despite other griping, it seems the changes will keep things about the same, or even benefit, most other players, though players who could do 1600 points in a 10-chest fellowship before will have to adjust which provinces they do, if they are not able to time things to do the 6th star. I honestly do not believe Inno will tweak it much because it seems to benefit the majority of players, while only hurting the power players. And as we have seen with other changes, Inno would rather find new paying customers than keep the old paying customers happy. And unfortunately this will probably get worse as more of the old power players either quit or stop spending money on the game.
Just to add, if a player can already do the 6th star, then that player will just have to adjust a little bit to the new system and be fine. Right now, it is all about the loss of KP from the 2nd star.