This change if true makes the spell nigh useless especially for rangers which are already an underwhelming class due in no small part to their more limited spell casting abilities as opposed to paladins who can get spells like prayer of healing and change the spells daily, etc. I also like the Healing Spirit help make it more plausible to have a party keep going and completing adventures in a herioc fashion without a cleric or dedicated healer in the group.
It is my belief that there is a contingent of 5E D&D players who don't want characters to be larger than life heroes (people who despite their birth circumstances are a clearly above the average humans in the world inherently) as opposed to being normal Joe Schmoes that decided to put down a plough share and pick up a sword and go adventuring. They want it to return to a time when there was no short rest, spellcasters ran out of spells and had to shoot crossbows, and PCs made characters and half of them died on the first adventure.
For many people that style of play was not fun. I enjoy herioc level PCs with cinematic action. For the more average Joe pick up a sword game there are games like Warhammer Fantasy, etc. So, I hope on general Xanathar's does not cave to a vocal enclave of DMs and weaken everything non the book. As it stands Healing Spirit as previewed went from gold to coal and I wouldn't take it.