I received a phone call from Disney too about my email. Spoke to avery nice man, for about 20 min, and he tried to explain why Disney did what they did. He said that whenever Disney gets a lot of feed back on a situation, which he then added happened about the DP and the vast majority was negative, they like to call the people who have commented back and speak with them.
He told me that the tip issue was set for the 2008 year, but could be changed for 2009. He said that many people had complained of sub-standard service which neccessitated the change. As far as the no appetizer change, he said that he has heard many suggestions of changing it to a choice between an appetizer or a dessert. He said that it was possible that the DP changes could be "ammended" during the year for that situation. He said that there was alot of wasted food from people who ordered food that just never ate it or ordered it because they could. I cant argue there, but made my suggestion nonetheless.
I agree with the poster that I felt good getting to talk to a real person to air my displeasure with the change. And that they called me! I was impressed.
So tell all of your friends and fellow DIS'ers to keep emailing. I dont know if it will cause it to change, but it has got someones attention and it's a start.