I would come up with lists to use for tournaments then try them out at the FLGS. The worst thing was when someone would agree, then ask me what army I play and come up with a list on the spot. Goodbye melta, hello flamers, hey and they're cheaper too. Hur-dur, I don't usually take purifiers but lol, FU. Let me dust off my whirlwind, etc.
A list tailored to beat orks can really kick orks ass. A general list designed to beat space marines will struggle with orks. A battleforce list will get creamed.
What do I mean by a battleforce list, I mean the typical lists you see in GW battle reports. Like this
Chaplin terminator armor, plasma pistol
Tactical marines, veteran sgt w/powerfist and combat shield, plasmagun, multi-melta, teleport homer, Rhino with extra storm bolter
Scouts with shotgun
Dreadnought with TL heavy bolter and extra armor
5 Terminators, chainfist, assault cannon
Land Raider with extra armor
Devastator squad with 1 HB, 1 Missile (w/flakk), 1 MM, 1 LC, sgt w/melta bombs, power axe in a drop pod
3 man Scout bike squad with power fist and cluster mines.
Essentially, every unit is decked out to sound cool and allow cool modeling. BF armies have no consideration for focus or battlefield role. They're designed to show off as many units as possible. They generally also suck on the tabletop.
These types of armies are going to have a hard time dealing with any sort of extreme list or unit. This include a 30 man squad of ork boyz. There are a lot of points wasted in premium upgrades that are useless against orks (extra armor is of course, never worthwhile).
You know what laughs at a 30 man squad of boyz -- 6 wave serpents, 3 wyverns, 2 Thunderfires, 3 riptides, 6 venoms -- you know stuff you see in a tournament in bulk but never maxed out in white dwarf.
My guess is they felt they had to tamp down the 30 man boy squad, removing fearless, because it presents a lot of problems for these BF lists, newbies, and in demo games. Boyz don't come with a lot of superfluous upgrades that made them inefficient on their own (once we add in trukks, then you make the unit suck). A horde of T4, with a cover save required you to kill 20 before they had to take a morale test.
For some reason, GW really thinks large groups of units are a problem. They give squads tools to deal with orks, like flamers, heavy flamers, and rocket pods that are essentially worth less than their points (compared to other available options) against space marines.
Well congratulations, with the change to mob rule, now any balanced army should be able to deal with orks using the tools they already have and don't have to think about hordes in general as a part of list building. With Tyranids you just kill the MCs and ignore the hordes, without synapse they hide or eat themselves. Orks and Tyranids are just chaff anyways.
The trickle down effect is that horde orks just aren't viable anymore. Not that it was ever fun to play with or against, but 180 orks running up the field with lootas and/or kans in support actually worked pretty well. It was quite a site to behold, even if the paint job was only tabletop quality. That many orks did make an impressive display.
Ork boyz aren't the backbone anymore. I'm still not sure how to make an effective list straight out of the codex. I've read that the formations actually make the army work, but have yet to get a hold of it myself. I feel like the army should work straight out of the box, without having to use formations since you never know what your opponent or a tournament will be cool with. Plus allowing formations opens up the awful Tau firebase support cadre which is straight up evil to take.
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