This is a good change and totally in line with what the team has been talking about for quite a while. They want to encourage (or little bit to force) players to level up cards instead of keeping thousands and thousands of level 1 cards available. This is simply another step in that direction. This is not a money grab or whatever, we're talking about less than 0.1 cent per card. It is not like this will pay the programmers' salary... All changes that puts a floor underneath the pricing and reduces the insane amount of transactions that otherwise occur with bots makes it more robust and thus more scalable, Hive fees or no Hive fees. This is a sustainable change.

Other things already made to reduce the bot exploitation/multiple account setups:

Starter cards - massive change to reduce DEC/SPS farming without any skin in the game when they now reduce your Reward %
New Low level card rule per league - first I disliked it heavily (because it affected me negatively) but now I have started to appreciate what it does. I'm buying and combining cards to level up my deck so I can gradually earn a little bit more each time. Good incentive/stick.

I've been playing this game now for 1,5 years or so and are enjoying it right now more than in a long time. The new soulbound cards are great! I'm looking forward to each chest I get since I cannot rent or buy those cards!

Before someone starts the "just ban bots" argument, I want to say that I like the fact that we have thousands of bot accounts because it basically guarantees that I always have someone to play against. They do not get any advantage over me (in Gold/Silver league) that I can see. So, thumbs up from your average Praetorian middle class player...