I think the rewards are a great change. Sure you get less cards, but you get potion charges and DEC and more from it now too, so it is well worth them not having to print so many more cards all the time.
In fact, I preferred when the game had fewer cards, too many cards are a bit confusing, I like chess because they are the same pieces for millennia and even so the game was still interesting
Well it's understandable that they don't give out the alpha or beta cards, but reward cards came out quicker until the new system. So now we shouldn't need another set of different cards for a while :)
Oh chess is definitely fun over and over again, I agree.