Our friends down the road have been offering hand baggage only fares on some routes and charging for some snacks in between meals for some time on their ULRs. BA allow you to pay extra to get a better quality of meal on longhaul in economy and are about to extend their hand baggage only fares to long haul shortly. EK is just following the competition. The modus operandi for long haul economy travel nowadays, seems to be all about offering options for passengers to create their own bespoke experience and it's all extra revenue for the airline.
The introduction of Premium Economy in 2020 at EK will only reinforce how a two tiered economy product can be justified, when the concept was brushed to one side by TC not that long ago. How times have changed!!!