It's great that certain peeps still prefer 18 year olds but the majority of teams, managers and players are not D1, B3 or NT. This could hurt 18 year old prospects long term in general as people will prefer 19 year olds more now over 18 year olds, They are cheaper to train and have a bigger impact when initially drafted.
The elastics you talk of only really mean something for the very tip top potential players right? Your 7/8 potential player being 19 now means a lot more imo as you are effectively half a season ahead in training in a lot of cases and need a YT half as long saving you a few hundred thousand.