With the only masters I own being Lilith and Lynch, 3E is looking like my nightmare scenario. I have little interest in playing Nekima, but my collection is mostly nephilim and brilliance models so I feel like I'm going to effectively have to start buying malifaux over if I want to play Neverborn (which I do.)
The new crew rules seem like a nudge to get people to buy more models, and of course a way to more easily balance things. It seems like this will make it harder to slowly expand into new masters, without buying all their coordinating models. These changes remind me of some of Privateer Press' changes to Warmachine in the middle of 3E, especially the push to more thematic lists making factions more segmented.
The new options do look interesting, but as a casual player, expanding into one or two new masters (Titania and either Euripedes or Zoraida for me) seems particularly daunting.
I hope Wyrd puts out a great game. They seem to know what they are doing. I just have concerns for now. Finally, if this news had dropped a year ago, and I'd known I'd need to make more purchases to solidify my Malifaux lists, I would have just bought into TOS instead. Right now I wish I had pledged.