I used to work for a company that was an MPN partner and the changes wouldn't have affected us. I'm assuming that I've understood the changes correctly, so I could be wrong.
Maybe it's some vocal partners rather than the majority that would be affected by this?
In any case, unless they have ample evidence of abuse this is a bad move
I work for a silver partner and this literally doesn't affect us. There aren't many "good faith" configurations I can imagine that would struggle fitting into this model. I'd be all ears if there's someone affected but I imagine those businesses would be operating multiple arms, one of which is performing the functions of a Microsoft partner and the other is leveraging the free access to tools to drastically cut the costs of operation.
yeah, i imagine that they are maybe hosting software for customers with the free licences or something else, or else why would that be such a big change for some of them.
It hurts the small partners the most. I think losing the silver and gold on-prem license grants are probably a good thing, and it will be interesting to see if any locals take a material hit having to buy up the replacement licenses for their operation. Like the guy above said, I do think some subsidiary arms are just fronts for buying cheap IURs in the Gold program. But the smallest start up service providers losing the 5-seat IURs for O365 in the action pack will really hurt them and the ability of new partners to start up.
Maybe it's some vocal partners rather than the majority that would be affected by this?
In any case, unless they have ample evidence of abuse this is a bad move