pogre
Legend
How nice. I DM locally over 95% and only have 10 PCS. 1 tier 3, 3 tier 2 and the rest tier 1. I am also the only local dm running Season 8 modules; the rest fled after 08-04. Only 1 of my pcs ran only in a specific season. The rest are blend of various seasons and con created content.
So locking a pc into a season and not getting unlocks and story awards for out season will hurt my pcs. Hey Pogre is running season 5 at the con. The answer would be no ccc's. and the current season.
One of advantages of AL is I can season hop with out it being a pain. Hey jasper,Bill is running Black road DDAL05-02 for 2 new people and we need a third; bring out a tier 1 pc to help.
What I am thinking with what I can find currently is. Allow your new to season lock, if you just play that season, then at the end of the season you get free magic items and boons. If you don't season lock you still get the unlocks and story awards but are free to farm other adventures.
Sorry if I came off as trivializing the changes impacts on player characters. That certainly was not my intent. To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the season 8 changes and the season 9 changes do seem unnecessary.