It is a step in the right direction. Relying on tv spectators to police the game is a crap shoot. Not all players get equal viewing time, therefore the rules were not equally applied to all contestants. This is breaking a basic tenet of sporting rules.
Under ideal situations now, the TV referees will be seeing the same telecast. They're not committing to film everyone equally: people will still be watching the telecast and identifying possible infractions - they'll just be paid rules officials instead of relying on someone in the "audience."
So literally nothing changes. The "basic tenet of sporting rules" is still "broken" in your view.
Plus, regardless of who spots the error, I can't understand why anyone is okay with a known infraction going un-penalized. Players are often made rich playing a game that asks them to be honest and know and follow the rules. Why should they get away with an infraction? Shouldn't playing by the rules 99% of the time be better than playing by the rules 98% of the time?
Very pleased about no penalty for signing for an incorrect score after 18 holes for 72 hole events. The tournament score is final after the 72nd hole and not until then. Why should players be penalized for an incorrect score prior to the conclusion of 72 holes?
Because the competition is still ongoing, and players are responsible for putting down the correct score. It made sense to cap it at the end of the tournament - players go home and literally leave. But the tournament is still ongoing, in round 3, and an error in round 1 can still better reflect the outcome of the tournament.
What incentive is there to know and play by the rules and write the proper score down now?
Let's say a player commits a breach that he's unaware of. His caddie a few holes later says "hey, I think maybe you got two strokes back on #11." What's the incentive for the player to include those two strokes? He can include them or not. If he includes them, fine, cool. If he doesn't include them, then two things can happen: 1) He can get away with it, saving himself two strokes. 2) He can be penalized the actual penalty he incurred, later on, and simply declare "Oh, sorry, I didn't know. I don't know the rules very well."
What's the downside? He already incurred the penalty. There's now tremendous upside - and BTW the USGA and R&A have said that they won't look at video shot by a spectator on their smart phones, even if they show very clearly that the guy committed an infraction - in playing ignorant.
This was a DQ very very recently. Then they softened it to two strokes, and I thought "okay, fine." Now it's gone entirely? What's the incentive to writing the proper score down? Just assume you never incurred a penalty and write down that score. Worst case, you get the penalty you deserved. No need to know the rules.
Hell, just assume drops from water hazards are all free. Continue to fail to learn that it's a stroke penalty. Just write down a 4 instead of the 5 you got, and if nobody notices… awesome! (This wouldn't continue to pass on the PGA Tour, but junior golfers could abuse the hell out of this "oh, I didn't know" loophole).