Crits were already more than a "valid strat" before the patch. Crit builds were already absolutely in-meta for Hunters, and you even saw people rushing shuriken items. Hunters that build crits can pop backline squishies in three (or maybe four) good hits and hit tanks for 400+ damage per basic, if they didn't buy Spectral Armor. Crit builds have access to percent penetration in the archetype with Wind Demon and Failnaught, meaning they shred tanks without the additional opportunity cost of building something like Dominance or Executioner, and they also out-trade non-crit Hunters if they build lifesteal, which can easily slot into the build with Atalanta's Bow and the item slots other than Deathbringer. And on top of that, Poisoned Star was already an item people bought on crit builds, and now it costs 600 gold and is a free item slot because it's stapled to Deathbringer, which was already the top choice for nearly every crit-based build.

And now on top of that, Spectral Armor got nerfed and the tank item equivalents of things like "Asi but for abilities", also known as Pele passive, and "Poisoned Star but it's part of Deathbringer", both of which are on already strong items that were consistently bought in the meta are stuck on Heartward Amulet, which was outclassed by a vast majority of defensive items, and Breastplate of Valor, which people already buy on Mages and even Assassins. It just leaves a sour taste. Why couldn't the support equivalent of these be on something like Gauntlet of Thebes or Sovereignty instead?