For me, the result of this debate is clearly that the PCI DSS has a levelling effect on merchants (including PSPs). Merchants with bad security practices get better while merchants with excellent security practices get worse.
As the group of merchants bad security practices is by far bigger than the other one, we will likely see less merchants getting breached in total.
On the other hand, I guess that the majority of merchants with excellent security practices prior to PCI DSS are also the ones that process most credit card data. This will likely end in a situation where we have less breached merchants but more breached records.
The Verizon breach report is already pointing in that direction (by far most breached records at major Level 1 merchants). The question is if this is what card brands and customers really want from the PCI DSS?