I have a feeling it will take quite a long time until the restrictions are relaxed based on how long it took to ease off the automatic disqualification policy.
Being someone who will have to take these tests to start flying(a lifelong dream), I actually don't have a problem with being required to take additional tests, but have two major concerns about it:
a.) the cost of the tests - It is unfortunate that people trying to get the special issuance will have to incur several thousand dollars in extra tests to fly, but hey...no one ever said flying was cheap. I think the ideal situation would be to have the FAA or some other organization create a hybrid test that incorporates the elements of each of the required tests. This way we could test all of the attributes(concentration, critical thinking, etc) that the FAA wants and make sure that the pilots are safe, but it could require less time and less money by creating this new test especially since it will need to be repeated for each renewal. So now for a class A, the pilot will incur these expenses each year which leads me to my next question.
b.) the accuracy of repeated tests - So let's say a pilot gets the special issuance on a class A medical. They now take these mental tests each year. There are plenty of studies that debate the effectiveness of any test that is repeated many times with the idea being that you can "game the system." I'm not an expert in psychology or research by any means, but that kind of makes sense to me. It kind of reminds me of the pilots that used to memorize the eye chart. They couldn't see anything, but could recite the eye chart as if they had better than perfect eye sight. Probably a little different since they can now change the eye chart with the click of a mouse, but the idea still stands.
I still think the special issuance situation has its weaknesses, but it's a step in the right direction. I think there is value in lobbying to the FAA and the rest of the government to make the process easier, but still effective.