So like making cool pvp rewards available to everyone, and being lied to about the cool exclusive rewards you got from certain competitions no longer being exclusive are separate things?

I think everyone agrees that the game making cool rewards available for everyone is a good thing and winners-only exclusive items aren’t necessary anymore.
They could just make new cool rewards, but they chose to go back on their words and bring back items that were already labeled as limited exclusive for competition winners as the rewards. Competition is the key word here, it’s a reward you earned from competing to be the top players, you didn’t get it by chance. It must feel like being betrayed, and it’s only natural to be upset. You don’t normally hand out gold medals or trophies to just anyone.

While this may make many people happy that they will get cool rewards that they may have always wanted, it also shows that the devs' words may not be trusted and reduces any credibility they may have.