It doesn't look as if you have an option to pay in cash any more. Given the hoopla when they switched to cash pricing - where they were trying to contrast that with the inconvenience of the complex models of other sites.
Take a look at the wayback machine
version of the site from January last year and the video explaining why cash pricing is the way to go. I guess that was then...
I do think that they should have sent something out to contributors talking about this change - I didn't get any e-mail. Did anyone else? Is there any sort of contributor communication any more - the last newsletter I have is from February 2012. The
"blog" is just a list of free images. Not a lot on their
Facebook page either (I couldn't see anything there about dropping cash prices)
As far as lower commissions, the credit packs have been there along side the cash prices (see the wayback machine for
December 2012) and they aren't now cheaper than they were then, so I don't thing it's reasonable to describe it as a step down