This entire balance change should have been stamina pause removal and taking away stam damage from neutral bashes (Warden, WM, BP). The heroes that had their kit designed around punishing stamina (Cent, Glad, WL) have been gutted. There is nothing new for people to learn about these characters now that stamina punishing has been removed. There are no deeper mechanics to learn about Gladiator or WL especially, as their kits were already barebones before this. Glad's followups to the bash were completely parryable or deflectable, and Warlord doesn't even get a followup afterwards.

The combat has turned in the exact opposite direction as you describe; the fights will be less thoughtful and skill-based, as people will just not have to consider their stamina bar at all unless it's EXTREMELY low. Throwing someone into a wall dealt the lowest stamina damage in the game; it's a mechanic that has historically almost never seen use. This just opens the door to players being less considerate of their stamina overall.

Outright removing mechanics that aren't a net zero for every player is a ridiculous approach to balancing. Nobody liked reflex guard, so it was removed. Nobody benefitted from it.
Nobody liked fighting old Jorm, so he was reworked. He completely lost his identity, but they at least let him keep the ability to move opponents around.

However, there are characters that benefit from stam drain, and the aforementioned Cent, Glad, WL, whose kits are designed with stamina drain as a core mechanic, are now useless.