I actually believe, this will probably be one of the most difficult challenges for the designers. Finding the delicate balance to keep the complexity while making the game more accessible to new players. Complexity, balance and the need of proper brainstretching is definitely one of the main strengths of the game for a lot of hard core players (for me as well!). However in smaller gaming communities, it tends to drive away of lot of players, that are not willing to invest too much into the game (in regard of their time and energy). In our (central EU) area, we mostly see local groups of ca 5-15 active players in most bigger cities (connected with the tournament scene). Most of the groups here struggle to expand and keep the new and casual players (that constantly lose against active players). Tournaments are attended by more-less the same core of people, most of the newcomers appear 2-3 times there and then withdraw from the scene.
I personally (as well as some other players around) would definitely be very disappointed if Malifaux loses much of its complexity and if it becomes beer-and-pretzel easy game, I would probably leave it. But a person, who run most of the demos around and try to keep the community alive, I see the current state as a problem, too.
TBH, it changed quite a lot since the beginning of M3E, eventhough the system has not changed much. Differences between new players and veterans were much smaller then (because the game was kind of new for all of us). But since then the difference just grows, because old (and competitively active) players just keep getting more experienced and the immense bloat of new stuff just adds to this. There is rougly 1-2 player a year (max.) in our broader area, that is competent and enthusiastic enough to fight their way among the podium players. Even the competitive veterans coming back after years have serious problems jumping in.
The game just has quite insane entry barrier, players playing 1-2 games a month are just overwelmed by it, unless they are very dedicated a/or experienced competitive wargamers. Even I (with Malifaux being my main free time activity) often have problems giving advice to new players, that picked something new. And listening to our content creators, it seems this problem is quite widespread (maybe with the exception of some big/competitive player groups).
I am really curious how the gamedevs will handle this, but after the excellent transition from 2ed to 3ed, I absolutely trust them with this. Even if it disappoints lot of players (maybe even me), I believe it will be good for the overall health of the game.
And to add to the topic, from practical side I really believe, they will keep the current deployments the same and not make all our mats obsolete. π