You are actively helping the players who are currently doing the best and hurting the players that are doing the worst with the update. I know that wasn't the intent but that is the end result. The players who currently are having the most difficult time are the free players who have been unlucky and this update makes things more difficult for them.

Increased communication would lessen some of the frustration, when new explorers were discussed in chat they were talked about as a way to help balance some of the bad luck players were having. Making them only available to players with steem to spend is a slap in the face of all the free players. If you had mentioned from the beginning that this was a premium feature perhaps free players wouldn't have gotten their hopes up and would be less upset now.