Definitely think this update takes away from the game more than it adds to it. My biggest issues are:
You can't do recon on enemies like looking at their army and resources, which makes attacking a shot in the dark unless you waste a cheap unit to attack and then see their army 10-20mins later.
Taking away the shield feature makes it easier for enemies that have already attacked you to attack again since they will be able to see your army and know that you could not have built back up.
It is very easy to track the types of bots that could be used in this game, so claiming that these new features prevent bots is kind of BS. Taking away features is not a defense against bots. It's more like: "If bots are being used to look at shields, we'll just take shields out." Soon the whole game will be gone with that logic.
Overall, DrugWars, is still a good game, but now it is going to be much less active since I don't think attacking is a very logical approach anymore. It is more like a waste of time to try and attack people.