By cancelling assesment days Etihad are acting professionally so look on it as a positive rather than a negative. They already must have 100's in the holding pool so they are now being very selective as to where they want to recruit their crew from in order to slow down numbers in the pool. They will have to stop all recruitment sooner or later to give the holding pool a chance to empty when training starts again.
For those wanting to attend assesment days you could see if there are cheap flights to other countrys where they are being held. This is what i did and ended up flying to london for mine. It's not possible for eveyone though so i understand how annoying it must be for you guys
