The R&A's announcement of this 9-Hole championship came on the heels of a study they conducted which found that current and potential players want to devote, on average, 1.9 hours to a golf outing. Certainly, there is a pace of play implication to that finding, but I think the more important implication of the R&A's announcement has to do with flexibility.
What I think they are saying in setting up the 9-Hole Championship is that they are willing to be a role-model of flexibility in order to keep players saying yes to the game. There has been a false and untenable choice baked into the perception of rigid adherence to the 18-hole format for some time. Golf consumers seem to think that the only choice they have is 4+ hours or nothing, and at some facilities, that is unfortunately the case.
With this championship the R&A is reinforcing the notion that players should get out and play as much as their schedules allow, and that facilities should be flexible enough to let them. At that level, I think that this 9-hole Championship has the potential to have a real, positive impact.