Etrade is responsible for notifying its clients for any change in it's policies. They may not tell you WHY of course changes are made but have to notify you. I can understand the "TIMING" of this change has you suspicious and you may have a point. Might never KNOW that for sure though.
Point I am trying to bring to you is OTHER on-line-account services , like the TradeKing that I use, have had those TIME and PRICE limits in place already for YEARS. WHY Etrade didn't would be my question.
At this time if that is an OPTION you desire to have then I would suggest you shop around for it. Do not know of any myself but maybe a member here knows of one. GLTU