Pruning is fine, but do you really consider the removal of interesting mechanics like 3.x Time Dilation and Celestial Opposition to be that?
Why were these cut instead of merging the Draw and Play keys back into a single button Ala Heavensward. That's 2 buttons saved with 1 single change, 3 if you throw in the removal of Undraw as well. Need to save even more buttons? Rework Minor Arcana to be a baby Assize style splash AoE around your card's target instead of it's own system. That's 4 hotkeys saved and little to nothing was lost.
It just isn't pruning. It's simplification and homogenisation to the extreme. Do I think their direction is entirely unjustified? No, but they need to be more imaginative and attentive with how they go about this.
The current standard of work is just embarrassing TBH.