Now that we've had a chance to poke the new buttons for a while, I don't see any reason to complain about nerfs. I haven't even found a real nerf, just some shifting of numbers related to a new game mechanic.

Yes, my first tournament after the chair upgrades got enabled was roughly 1K levels lower than usual. Now that I've had time to get my chairs halfway upgraded (they're working on lvl 44 at the moment) I finished 2K higher than before.

Personally, I think it's a feature that #11 is no longer the only girl you need to worry about. I never found it logical that one girl is carrying the entire company, always making 99% of your total profit regardless of how high you level the other girls. Even up above 20K levels there are now periods where other seats earn more than #11 can dream of, making it worthwhile to upgrade them throughout the tournament instead of just at the end.