No, they’re just making a new standard. Basic economy will now be the standard price, and the economy will be slightly above that. This ticket might be slightly cheaper than the old standard, but it will still allow them to raise the price of an economy ticket, as well as every other ticket above economy.

What they are doing is very simple and obvious. Create a lower fare so that they show up as the cheapest ticket on more of the aggregator sites. Then bump up the price of “normal” economy tickets.