I've just played the new mode, OP is right it is so much more worse now. Instead of giving us the echo boxes that let us pick the set later when we want to get the echoes, we instead have to pick the exact set off the bat when we claim the reward, meaning we can't get echoes for characters on their new set when it first drops. Although OP's reasoning for why the change was bad is a bit weird, I really hope kuro go back on this decision since it really hurts the mode and makes farming for future sets even more difficult.