Initially, you will lose rank. But you will gain a greater score in rebuilding. I've had to do this many, many times over the past 2+ years since I've played the game. Finding out mistakes, tearing down the mistakes, then rebuilding, has always given me greater rewards in space and score.
I wasn't affected by the rebalancing, in fact, my population doubled when I didn't need double population. I think it's unfortunate this happened but ultimately I think it will make building cities more logical.