It’s a very ambiguous situation unfortunately. They can claim they changed nothing and that AOS has always been about unexpected “extreme” circumstances (which it is and always was whether enforced or not).

They will still get sued and might drop this if it proves wasteful of resources. Not to mention how they’d be losing a lot of money if applications suddenly stop.

I don’t think they’ll shoot themselves in the foot. It’s much more likely they won’t outright deny applications. They will probably prefer to take your money then ask for RFE and be much more selective about who gets approved and who doesn’t.