Yes. Changes happening. Lots of "sorting out" to be done, in terms of what it means, and how to manage it. And best ti not overthink it.
The fact remains, the best skiers, the fastest, who do ski cleanly and fast for two runs will i the end have the lowest points.
This is intended, actually to make World Cup results more important and to reward them. That makes a lot of sense.
It's going to be confusing for a while, or will look different. The world rankings will pretty much stay the same for those to whom it matters. The racers point profiles will look a bit higher if not scored on the WC. What this means is that pretty much most who ski two clean runs in their first few WC's should be able to "score."
But yes, every FIS licensed competitor will start this season, in July, with recalculated points. Higher ones. Which we need to grasp are no big deal. If you kid had a 55 point GS profile, and now it's 72, or whatever, he did not get slower.
The people who I hear from who are kind of worked up over this are largely parents who's kids, with their full and generous support, have been chasing points all over the country and globe. This will also mean that some of the American FIS races, normally in the spring, that have been a bit notorious for producing big point drops may not be quite as attractive. Think Lutsen.
I think it's going to take some getting used to, and seeing that it makes sense. It should be about more than points, at a lot of levels, IMO. And frankly, scoring points on the WC should mean something. As
@K2 Rat notes, we in particular have had a lot of men who have earned 6 point profiles over the years who have gone on to be very mediocre at best on the WC. Even with a world ranking of 30-35, and starting WC races in that range, many struggled to get a second run. This point profiles were quietly considered a joke by many, think European coaches. A six point profile earned on the Europa Cup was a very, very different thing.
This was voted on at the recent FIS Congress, and then adopted by the FIS Council. There were questions about implementing it, but a lot of rework was done. The initial proposal was refined a bit. I had not paid a lot of attention, until it's finalized. There had been discussion of domestic FIS penalties, and the FIS-Uni penalties being a bit lower, perhaps. And they were actually lowered, and equalized at 23. Again these are MINIMUM penalties. Don't expect to see more than a tiny handful a year.
BTW, a couple of other thoughts. Robby has scored well in NZ and Australia for years. But last summer, he scored a 6.97 and an 11.89. Not his best summer. Not every Continental Cup race has a 6 point penalty. It all depends on the factors that enter into a penalty calculation. However, regardless of the field and results, the minimum penalty for those races {and Nor Ams}has been six. Even if it calculated lower.
Alice Robinson is a phenom. She is a Kiwi who skied at Sugar Bowl. She won two GS's in her first FIS year, in NZ, last summer. A 14.90 and an 18.18. Later in the season she scored a 6 when she won the NorAm GS at Panorama, and she had an 11.90 in a domestic FIS race in Austria, with a stacked field. She is very, very legit. No point giveaways in her profile. Hopefully she will stay on a good trajectory. Has never happened for a Kiwi. Perhaps we'll see her on an alternative independent program at some point.......
So, IMO, no need to be concerned about this. It will all sort out and make sense. It may actually be good for the USST's planning, and development. It will eliminate thinking very young skiers with some good skiing on the NorAm circuit and such are ready to kill it on the WC. That should be clear, I hope. Old habits and thinking dies hard, though.