It's good in the sense that it will weed out people who are in it for the money. When they see they aren't making money off it they'll probably stop. Meaning less competition for you which means it will be easier to grow.
I think it'll hurt some decently-well established, but small communities in the sense that, it cuts off a revenue stream that the creators can use to buy small bits of equipment. For instance, I was able to buy a new microphone (Sony ECM-44B) for my videos, using my Adsense dollars. I'm afraid my community won't get that cool opportunity to see upgrades that they contributed to if I don't hit this new threshold.
Well this is going to be pretty bad for my channel, as now it will take me even longer to join a network. I've been doing YouTube for 4 years and still haven't got the 10k needed, and I only have 216 subscribers, so getting to the new requirements will take ages, just so I can join a network. I know it won't help me that much, but seeing how awfully my channel has been doing so far, any help is really needed.