In a word: Money, and as someone who has already invested enough to hit VIP 6, it makes me mad.
The broken random gem spawners and the AI’s permanent Bonestorm (yes, it’s a thing) were done to slow players down because of money. Can’t have players farming gold too fast or not one will buy it, right? Consider how many LTs the top guilds have been grinding out since the implementation of 4x speed.
I really wish the Devs would just come clean about why they broke what they broke (and smack the bean counters who made them panic and break it to begin with). Making the game less fun will drive players away, not convince them to spend more money in the shop. I know I’m done spending until I see how this is handled.
I don’t expect a troop like Jarl to give a match-4 or match-5 100% of the time, but I also don’t expect it to only give one 5% or 10% of the time.
(On a distantly related note: I wish there were more MICRO transactions in the shop instead of all the $20-25-30-35-50 choices. Instead of 36 arcanes for $35, what about 5 of a specific arcane for $5? etc. Having more less-expensive options available should generate more sales, but I’m no bean counter so I could be way off.)