I did some investigating after reading this thread...and this info is probably third hand at this point, and I am merely passing along what she said...but I thought I'd pass it along...A friend of mine is a CM at WDW...a character actually...the short ones...anyhow, HER roommate works as a waitress at Artist Point and the story she got was that there have been a number of issues leading to the changes at WCC. One is that there have been numerous complaints from guests...people walking out mid meal etc, b/c servers would not leave them alone. We've all heard the storys about kids being reduced to tears etc. A quote was something like "I do NOT bring my family here to be humiliated!!!" (that was a guest to a manager or something like that) Also, it seems that the noisy atmosphere from WCC was making the lobby VERY loud and some guests felt it was disruptive. The source to this info said that there were times that WCC could be heard inside Artist Point, which does not lend itself to the "dressy" atmosphere. Anyhow, the servers who were once told to be as wild and crazy as possible, no limits...were given limits and now a lot of them are very unhappy about the changes and are leaving or switching jobs within WDW.
Maybe Disney felt that the number of upset guests was outnumbering the diehard bunch that love WCC.
anyhow...that's my inside info...as I am merely the messenger please do not seek to harm!