They're doing a lot more with the data now, so I suppose it makes sense. But I wonder how many people would choose the old option for 'dumb' storage. Currently, I would, though that may change in a few months.
The dumb storage had far better economics for the user. I love Google products and services, but my immediate impression here is that it's a total step backward for users like me who were already using some kind of local sync app (Insync, OfficSync, etc) w/ paid-extra Google storage - just for documents.
All the extras like the additional gmail space, GDrive integration with other products (but not our dumb storage) seems like ancillary stuff to sell it/lock you into the platform.
Like you, I'm interested to see how I feel about this in a few months.
The pricing changed today. It is considerably less attractive now.
It looks like I'm grandfathered into $20/year for 80GB, but if I wanted to go up to 100GB the pricing is now $4.99/month.