And now, it became all worthless with the DF policy change.
Not sure if I read your post right, but the DF policy is the same, in fact has become more difficult, Earlier, people would need just one judicial hearing to cry and save from being DF'ed. However, now you meet the committee multiple times and have to keep crying and proving that you are sorry. Our congregation had a JC (now called CoE) which went on for 4 meetings with the same person and then the decision was taken to reprove.