Instead the chosen way was ignoring players. CPS are still sold for USD on website today, and no JWL promotions on Facebook, Forum, In-game, nor on ApexConquer or Heroes homepage. Probably not to discourage players to buy CPS with USD for as long as possible. Fair enough, it's his own server and he does what he think it's better but in my country older people use to say "if you pull too much the rope, it eventually breaks", I guess in english it's "to push one's luck too far" or something like that.
I think you are jumping the gun and drawing conclusions a bit quick.
My understanding is that
1) Apex: no changes to game economy, JWL added as an additional payment method. I wasn't aware of there being a premium currency called "CPS" but I don't see why that would be a problem. All that Chris needs to do is to allow JWL to buy CPS, everything else being done with CPS. That way current players of Apex are not impacted at all. They have one more option to buy CPS. That's all. So long as JWL doesn't allow to buy things that CPS can't, I don't see how that would be a problem. In that case, that explains why Chris doesn't annoy his non-techie non-crypto-geek players with the JWL news: if it's just yet-another-payment-method to them, that is not very news worthy (at least as far as Apex is concerned).
2) Heroes: unlike Apex, JWL is the one and only official premium currency. But since Heroes hasn't been launched yet, there is no-one with entrenched interests that would be displaced by this plan, so I don't see any problem. Players from Apex who will move to Heroes will just figure that CPS was renamed JWL and has a somewhat difference exchange rate although in the end, the same amount of USD still allows to buy the same amount of in-game gold and items as in Apex, so nothing to be worried about.
3) Rebirth: obviously completely new thing, By then everyone and their dog will be used to dealing in JWL.
Of course, there is a need of incentive for people to move from Apex to Heroes. So Heroes should have more content, more events, more great stuff all around, so that people who are currently playing Apex decide to start playing Heroes. But in no case should Chris start to kill Apex to encourage people to move as this would be perceived as unfair. People should move because they genuinely want to, not because they are pushed to. One great way to encourage people to move would be to give them free perks on the other side. Blizzard is great at doing that. Playing Diablo? Here you go, you've got free Hearthstone cards, free Heroes of the Storm mounts, free WoW pets etc.
@pro4never: can you clarify what's the official stance about integrating JWL to Apex on top of CPS and encouraging Apex players to start playing Heroes? Will Heroes be new enough to justify dropping very advanced characters and starting over new? Do you have a way to transfer characters and items to Heroes, even if they become account bound in the process, and give some special status marker to old players in the new game to keep them loyal and satisfied?