The new forms of vulpix and sandshrew will have a different movelist and maybe stats too, so I don't understand why they made them. They might as well been new pokemon.

I thought the new forms were jokes at first, especially when you start out with that exeggutor. The new pokemon are just whatever to me. The most interesting news is the removal of gyms for trials, but these trials might just be an in name change only. We won't know until further information.