Dear David,
I've got too somewhat conflicting thoughts about this.
The changes are editorial. Does it really need another vote? It would be nice to get a press release out somewhat promptly.
The changes make an already long sentence even longer. The resulting sentence is:
Completed in 18 months, IEEE 802.3bz-2016 supports the growing need for Ethernet connectivity over structured twisted pair wiring beyond the 1 Gb/s capability provided by the IEEE 802.3ab standard (1000BASE-T), which is considered by many to be the most successful Ethernet physical layer standard.
I know what it is saying but it is hard to parse. While I wouldn't vote against the press release in this form, because it needs to get out, I don't think the overall change is an improvement. If they didn't like "completed in record time" (and I can see reasons against that text), then it could have been:
"IEEE 802.3bz-2016 was completed in 18 months. It supports...."
I'm fine with also deleting the unnecessary "ever".
Regards,
Pat