Actually I think this makes a lot of sense. The contestants have learned from the earlier seasons, and each one has gone longer than the others. However, I think they were kind of reaching the limit of what was possible for one person. The last season, the starvation was going to be the limiting factor one way or another. I forget their names, but the guy who won expected that he was about to be sent home for losing so much body weight, he won just by virtue of his opponent dropping below her minimum weight just a day or so earlier than he did.
Several contestants who MAY have had the skills to go longer just got bored and opted to leave due to the lonliness. By alleviating that issue, a new dynamic is added to the problem, but a good working team could set up a system/routine where they could actually thrive for much longer than what we've seen up to date.
Without a format change, the show was limited to "more of the same". This way there are new hurdles and bridges to cross. Naked and Afraid is just a novelty show by comparison, IMO.
(Granted, a setting with more abundant resources might allow new levels of accomplishment, but a lot of those STILL might never be realized due to lonely people tapping out with a lot of gas left in their tanks.)
Optimistic, although it's not a slam dunk that this will be an improvement.