The reason this isn't a "godawful change" is because it makes the game significantly more skill-based as opposed to "guess the opponent's whole team before you do anything" luck-based. It doesn't diminish skill, it doesn't make legitimate surprise (not gimmicky bullshit like using bad pokemon for the sake of it) inviable, it just changes the way the "first section" of the game is played.
A lot of the backlash here is completely unfounded and based on playing a metagame that very few people have actually experienced. Having experienced said metagame, I can say with absolute certainty that this change definitely emphasizes skill, and definitely doesn't make "surprise" a thing of the past.
Again, I concur. I believe that GF implimented this feature because of the fact that this is the standard setting used in their official tourneys and on PBR, which is also considered standard fare. They're not doing this for us, this is for the rest of the demographic this game is targeting.
It doesn't need to. The reality is that competitive play outside of simulators is going to be predicated on the fact that both players will be aware of each others' teams, by simple virtue of the fact that it has been made an aspect of gameplay in the 5th generation. Simulators should 'force you to look at the opponent's team' because Pokemon now forces you to look at the opponent's team, and the purpose of simulators is ultimately to actually simulate what happens (or can happen) in the game. Restrictions and additions to the game's rules are made on the basis of what is and is not humanly enforceable, and this is not.
The reality is that if Smogon does not enforce the change, it will in no wise remain the internet's premier Pokemon battling academy. The large Wifi community out there is simply going to ignore Smogon's rules, banlists, and suggested movesets, simply because they will have been developed under a metagame that cannot be reproduced for them, and which has no relevance to their own battling experience.
...And Shades kinda made my point for me, only more eloquently. We have to accept that the metagame has changed, whether it's a good or bad thing doesn't matter, it's a change.
That said, I'll be quite disappointed if Shoddy decides to simply ignore this feature. We've seen it proven that only IR-battles hide teams, and IR battles are quite tight in their ruleset (Level 50?). It makes no sense for Shoddy to emulate what we would consider the "ideal" manner of playing, when the purpose of Shoddy is to emulate the games themselves. Otherwise what's the point?
Someone earlier commented about the fact that you're not blindly guessing, you have whatever knowledge you have of movesets and counters to work with, thus making it less blind guessing...but again, I don't think that's the point. You could still lose a match because you guessed your opponent's mon or movesets incorrectly, and that still stinks of luck. Since you only have two options: right or wrong.
Yes, seeing the opponent's team eliminates the scouting and risk-management stage, but I don't see this as a purely negative development. I mean really, if everyone here is only using the same leads and/or same archetypical Pokemon, with the same standard movesets, and the same standard strategies...then the metagame is stagnating. It shouldn't be so repetitive. I think this, plus the new DW abilities, will give the metagame the breath of fresh air it needs, because you won't be able to relay on the same concepts and moves every game.