It would be an interesting tact, if they did restructure the price. After all Club Penguin is only $6.99 a month and they have a lot going on in that little game - so perhaps by lowering the price, they in turn attract many more players.
And if Pirates has been hemorraging so many players - they gotta' get new blood coming in. I suspect if the updates are coming in August, there will be a new ad push right before school starts - since more kids will be available to play as the weather changes and Disney would have the new features to promote.
So dumping off the cards makes sense for any future price changes, etc.