With no reset option for the PoC, blueprint income will be way down. I get that they didn't cut it from the original oil-to-bp ratio when they cut the oil/XP, but it's a bad look to take the possibility away if we wanted to dedicate the effort to get them. More options good, fewer options bad.
With the shorter cycle, it keeps me from edging past those who can get farther than I can but are not quite as dedicated as I am to do it every day over the longer time frame. Decreased competitiveness is never a good idea...if you want to be near the top you should have to work for it, not just automatically get there because you whaled your way there.
Rewards: 2-10% is now 11 candies per 2 day cycle rather than 40 candies per 7 day cycle. If my sleep-deprived math holds up, we're receiving 1.5 less candies per week at this reward level. (Assume similar numbers for cores, but I never cared enough about them to remember the number.) Would it have killed them to put it at 12 per cycle and let us have a small increase rather than a nerf?
Most of all...why? Did anyone still complain about the grind even after they cut the XP/oil in half?
As for the actual places everyone is getting, I don't know if we should worry too much about that now...do a quick estimation of the totals. For a data point, I'm at 45 and have scored 7%...I've never been below 50 before, and have scored 2% consistently (recently). There was no announcement that it was opened again, and from what they DID announce, randos shouldn't be expecting it to return until the next event starts. Be honest...how many of us here knew it was back before I announced it above?