Dumbing down or making it easier....?

Heard from a "person in the know" that my club are changing all the yellow penalty areas to red ones. I think this is a retrograde step, as it makes it easier in one particular case.
They changed one yellow penalty area a year or so ago, because it was difficult to drop a ball in line with the pin as the hole had a significant curve to it, so you had to move about 30 yards to see where the pin was, and then guess where it crossed etc.
The club are doing it to the remaining penalty areas, because of one particular hole. Its a 125 - 160 yard very steep downhill par 3, with a pond running alongside the full length of the right hand side of the green. At present, the pond is surrounded by yellow stakes. What happens is sometimes, people carve it left to the rough. Now they have to do a little up and over shot as there are mounds on the left hand side and the back of the green. Thinned or overhit shots scoot across the green and end up in the pond. Members think they can drop alongside where the ball went into the penalty area, rather than going to the other side of the pond, and having to do a risky flop shot over the pond - potentially losing more balls into the pond.

I think it's an education issue, and our rules guru has explained it several times to members, but obviously some people are not happy. Or it's to speed up play, I don't know. But I think it takes some of the skill out of the game.