Were the recent changes simply a smokescreen to JW's in order to slide in the change to practices surrounding disfellowshipping and butter up Norway and by extension the EU?
That seems obvious. I would suspect they may think they just have to formally make these changes but attempt to not really change things, which is kind of what they did with the Blood Issue in (was it Bulgaria?). If someone refuses to "repent" then they still won't be DF'd. Instead they will have DA'd themselves by their actions.
It will particularly be interesting to see if any real changes are limited to Europe, where they have their tit in the ringer already. The USA isn't going to stick its nose into religious issues -- not even shunning.
They better be cautious. There are NO secrets anymore. IF they try to just fake change, it will be exposed on the internet.