That's a very long post that doesn't say much but here are the things that caught my attention:
The good parts:
One of these effects will be granting map expansions for our cities, one every few upgrade stages.
This sounds great, in fact in somewhat redeems the nerf of diamonds in the spire, since most people were using them for expansions anyway.
I also like the addition of the Spire merchant, I've been saving Sapphires and looking forward to exchanging them for something.
The potentially bad:
This recognition comes in the form of a new “Spire Battle Skill”, which will precisely reflect your personal level of challenge faced in the Spire, a dynamic value determining the difficulty of encounters. After each Spire Round, the Spirits will cast their judgement anew, adjusting this value accordingly. Of course, the player's achievements won't be recognised through the Spirit's judgement alone. Players with a higher Spire Battle Skill will be richly rewarded for each encounter they have successfully completed.
This whole bit that also include the pictures has sparked a red flag in my head as it sounds like: "The fight were getting to easy, especially for experienced players so now we'll make then them "personalized" in a way that no metter how many boosts you add the fight will be hard for you (because let's face it, for most players, it's not about being that experienced in fighting, it's about how many boost you place or helpful AW levels you have)."
For players who prefer diplomacy over battling, the new currency can also be earned through the Negotiation approach. The amount of currency earned will depend on how many encounters were completed consecutively.
This bit is also quite confusing: what does it mean encounter completed consecutively. Does at mean from first try? Because that's only possible on the 1st level, on the 2nd and 3rd aligning more than 2 encounter that were negotiated in only 3 tries requires a hug amount of luck. Or does it mean simply doing a few encounter in a row without exiting the Spire, even if you lose some?
And what happens if we negotiate some encounters and fight others?