In short, I don't think badges would ever lose its value, at most it only holds a different value proposition now(exclusive badges) compared to prior(any badges). With a different value proposition, it then serves a different group of players now, in the case where badges are normalised, it is favoring the majority and not just the select few who are rich and able. You can see a big brain move here, sts risked upsetting a couple of rich players who may be against it to please the other 70-80% of poor to average players. In a way sts could be trying to lay the foundation for plat revenue to source from a larger pool than they have always done before this(from the minority of plat whales).

If you read some of the comments here, you can see people who run for "exclusive badges" alone are not against this move at all. Much like there are two camps of people who are supportive of Auras (and other visually impeding items) and the other camp who doesn't, the same logic applies here.