I am a maxed Def TH10 with 225 lavas and 25 zaps. My AQ is 30, and my BK is upgrading to 29 as I write this. From my POV, I can understand some of your concerns.
Regarding wall upgrading, yes it would have been nice to have been able to upgrade them with elixir, but even if SC takes some of the value of walls with this ( since more and more will have high level walls), they can never take away your GG. That will remain and show everyone just how dedicated of a player you are.
Looning will definetly be harder after the update, resource wise and offense wise. I have never farmed with loons much, since they take way to long to cook for me (yes even on boost

). I prefered Giant based armies, always have for some reason. That being said, I can relate to the elixir cost of farming armies, since with spells my army can take alot of elixir to make, which I rarely get back in one raid.
So, with this update I too will be forced to maybe approach things differently. But that is basically what made me stay in this game this long, with no intention of slowing down anytime soon. Everytime I got the feeling that I'm finally figuring this game out, SC dropped a new update and new things. Keep in mind I've been playing since Sept 2012, so I've seen them all. First few times I was overwhelmed, angry, like most of the forumers I'm seeing today. Now, my mentality has changed somewhat. I like that they change things, it opens up so many new possibilites.
All that being said, I'm loving this new update. It brings many features that I have wanted for a while, as for the rest of it, we'll have to wait and see I guess.
Cheers, Rock.