I do feel this is in answer to pvp ranked veterans that have been whining for more rewards specific to ranked besides plates and titles, arguing that it would magically address how inbred and low affluence ranked has become.

Obviously this was gonna bring the other side of the crowd that don't want this to be a thing, which tbh I understand completely. As you said SE specifically removed most unique big rewards from top100 (or higher ranked pvp or whatever) when reworking the system for the reasons you evoked, so I can understand that people now feel betrayed when they take a step back after taking 2 steps forward.

Perhaps they could have offered 1 of those tokens for bronze to gold, 2 from plat to crystal, and the additional 2 for top rankers... bleh.