The more I think about this change, the less I see it as being either worth the work, or remotely sensible.
First off, it's hugely bug-riddled - and you can be sure that there will be some of those get past Test into full release. It's been that way for every Beta feedback campaign, every 'Test' run on a new or reprogrammed system.... EA track record is what matters, not aspirations - and there is too much evidence from past failures to have any confidence that some miracle means we'll not see any this time round.
Want to encourage new characters on a shard - fair enough aim, so while you have NO in-game explanation of insurance (hell, in 2d you can still call up the 'Codex of Wisdom', which tells you how to make best use of your 'power hour' skill gain time!), let's keep it simpler. On first creation, that character gets, say, 5 modified personal bless deeds, with a proper instruction explaining how they work. They won't work for anyone else, and tweak them slightly so they only last (either as deeds or as 'blessed items' if they are used) until that character ceases being 'young', because by then they should have had a fair chance to understand how the basics of the game - including insurance - work. Stick an NPC 'insurance advisor' in the game, who can explain in more detail how that system works, give them a mini-quest to go talk to them before they can insure anything.
We keep hearing that gold sinks are a good idea - this removes an albeit minor goldsink, the money that 'vanished' on insured item loss in PvP.
The costs are just bizarre - the time spent figuring out the 'sliding scale' when the actual in-game prices are so low is not likely to have been wisely invested, when so many other big problems are crying out to be resolved.
It looks like another example of the unfocussed and fairly clueless management of UO. Reasonable enough idea in abstract, pretty irrelevant to the main issues of gameplay, but given developer and programmer time because it's a 'neat idea' to someone who has not grasped the actual list of priorities players have for what needs fixing. Sure there's a 'quick win' in PR, because
something gets announced and there's discussion on forums - but again, it looks to be all surface gloss and no substance in terms of the actual game.
