The recent GP news probably isn't going to help either. Sure the most recent show was pretty good, but now you have to sign up for ultimate to be able to play all those upcoming day 1 titles? What happened to, PS doesn't have day 1 and should as well?
I don't know what MS was thinking, but if this was planned for some time now, which it very likely was, then they executed backwards. They did another 180. They should've made the GP announcement first, and then followed up shortly after with the showcase. Asking for more afterwards is never received well.