I think this is a downgrade, and a hidden one at that.
Because it would be silly to keep the option to return to the 500-request plan — that means the new change will reduce functionality and cause dissatisfaction, so they’re building in the ability to go back to 500 requests.
I don’t believe in generous offers for Pro users, especially when cheap models like DeepSeek are being limited to 60k context per request.
I think they’ve calculated everything and will offer around 17–20 requests per day to keep us within the same 500-request range. I think this is shrinkflation.