Thank you for the clarification and additional info.
WG made some changes with Cmdr. skills that I thought were great, and giving till mid-Feb for unlimited skill changes is a very fair amount of time. The cost reductions are obviously good, BUT... it is a result of player complaints in the first place, and after a day or 2 with the changes, you start finding other changes "as a result" that happen to help WG offset the profit losses from the publicized (happier customer) changes. Its too obvious for them to overlook, and too convenient to be a coincidence. Not quite as inconspicuous, but another coinciding change was upping max Cmdr. skill points to 21, which requires grinding 12 million more Cmdr. XP. More reason to buy XP and Cmd XP + flags, maybe that $99 camo pack, and some players may give in to paying $20 for ships' permanent camo.
WG is a business, they make a great game, and they are smart in many ways.