I think this is great Good way to maximize sales from all the photos in your portfolio.

Sigh...Again, Fotolia?   

Not me. Account closed and I don't exist on their system anymore. It was fun taking the ride, but I finally took the Exit.

To be honest, I don't really have a problem with this.  I have been emerald for a couple of years and I wondered if having all my images set to a base of $2 might be losing me some sales in this economic climate.  

Reducing the price of my non-performers to a base of $1 may give them a chance to be more competitive and ultimately bring in more sales volume.  At least I hope so.  

Also, the fact that images which sell 5 times at base price are boosted back up to the higher price does give the images a chance to earn more again.

Since lowering the price will cost Fotolia more than it does me, I assume they will be watching how this affects sales and will change the policy if they notice themselves losing revenue. 

I'm emerald and that's my take on it as well.
 I don't think that Fotolia are going to do anything that will stop them making money.  I think the people that should be concerned are the ones that it doesn't seem to effect as the buyers may now buy images from emerald and exclusives that were previously too highly priced for them instead of  images from lower level non exclusives.

Today I have a mail sent by fotolia, 130 of my files was unsold for 24 months, and they suggest to give them for free, locking for five years in they partner sites. In that batch of photos there are many that sell well in other agency, and one was sell yesterday for 360$ in alamy as RF. I agree with a survey warning that images very low seller need some work in keywords, category, etc. But I can't imagine how giving it for free will improve my sales.

Never, ever give 'em free. Remove them. The original agreement was for all images offered in the free section to be offered for a period of 18 months.
That period was extended by FT to 5 years without consultation and without notice. It's corporate kleptocracy at the expense of the little guy. It's unlikely to boost your sales of other images either as free buyers only want stuff for free and your images probably end up in some archive in Timbuktu offered for sale, for money  by some scammer.

Your work is good and is worth paying for.