I'll withhold judgement whether these new rules are positive or negative until I see how it plays out. For now, I'd like to say that new players need a behaviour guideline (which the old rules were better at). As others pointed out, rules that are for many players here common sense may not be that obvious to newer players. Without this, I think it will end up being more confusing.
Actually, this leads me to another suggestion. Rather often, we ended up with rule changes that punish the majority for actions of a minority. To prevent needless complications like that, the old rules could be repurposed as guidelines. While the spirit in which they were created is still enforced, they would not be enforced word by word. Those violating would receive a warning if the violation was only minor or it looks like a person didn't know better and the new sanction system for anything else.
Groups or individuals that would abuse loopholes or harm the server otherwise would then simply be punished individually.
