Very excited about The Faceless Ones, and very surprised to get an announcement this early (wasn't Macra like October?).
I don't see the issue with animating the extant eps. I'm sure they'll still be on there as an option, but some people whine about it being jarring to go from animation to live action, so now they don't have to if they don't want.
They've obviously been going in the direction of FULL COLOUR MODERN HD etc, which many people thought meant stories not completely missing would be off the table. That's clearly not the case with this option, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned!