This is speculative (and similar to other comments), but I would think this is mostly about the schools holding a vested interest in being able to advertise attractive bar passage rates. I doubt it has much to do with disadvantaged students or expanding access to the profession, if you dig into it, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it had something to do with school administrators worrying about keeping the applications, student loan money, alumni donations, etc. coming in, and the school rankings up.
If you're familiar with the legal market in California, if anything, the exam should be made more difficult. I personally thought it was overdue when Whittier shut down - put it that way.