They probably should have done it at the time, but credit where credit is due for responding to the furor because they didn’t.
Champions Online: Free Retcon to Early Start Players | Champions Online Official Site
Due to the general balance pass on powers and difficulty that was made in the early morning hours of September 1st, we will be issuing a full retcon to early-start characters created before our launch day patch. As we did not anticipate needing to do such broad-based changes, we felt doing something extraordinary for our players was appropriate. Please note that this retcon will only be issued to characters that were created during the head start program.
We are currently working on a system to issue this retcon to early start characters. As soon as we have the technology in place to do so, we’ll let you know. Thank you all for supporting the game through the first few days of the launch.
Though, honestly, I don’t think they need to go to such lengths to restrict it to Early Start characters. I mean would it end the world if they just gave one out to everyone. Folks are still learning the game — cut them a break and earn some good will.