It’s not a “freak out”, it’s a huge inconvenience to a lot of people.
This is certainly a result of the organization being embarrassed that their “inventory” goes for pennies on the dollar on the street.
BN published several articles over the last year that drew attention to the sub $10 tix for both the Bills and Sabres. That can’t sit well with the suits, and I personally know several season tix holders that pointed it out to their reps during the renewal calls. As in ‘my loyalty gets me full price preseason games. hooray.’
Personally, my group used to print out all preseason tix and bring the extras with us, and just give them to people looking for one or two to get in the door. Especially the Kids Day game(which was also taken away for some reason).
Call Ralph cheap, but he knew his home market better than the new guy seems to.