I have to come out against the "the reviews should only review the game" crowd. There are very few ways customers can register feedback to a company in a way that can be heard - swamping them with bad reviews on steam is one of the only ways I can think of to send such a message. Moreover, if a portion of your enjoyment from the game had to do with the tools that were allowed to be used with it, and those tools were then disabled, it is actually reviewing the game. I would give skyrim that does not support mods a much worse review than the game that allows me to customize it and make it appeal to me in personalized ways.

It is logical, as games-as-a-service begins to infect even single player titles like GTAV, that fluctuations in service quality are going to piss people off and result in this kind of behavior.

Ultimately of course, the poor reviews are mostly symbolic. Take Two is going to weigh the loss in revenue from poor recent reviews with the gain in revenue projected from the improvements in the online community, even if there was some collateral damage. They will come down on the side of what makes the most money. Which will probably be to leave things as they stand.