I am really disappointed with the console tier of gamepass and it is clear that Microsoft is trying to upsell as many people as possible into the ultimate tier.
I also think this subscription reshuffle is part of a broader initiative to get the last Xbox live gold holdouts to convert to gamepass. Not a bad idea, but I think a lot of them are going to stubbornly stick to the core tier if the console only tier is not going to offer multiplayer access