Definitely not much of a surprise. When you saw the difference in how Ferrari seemed to favor him over even Seb, I always assumed Charles is to Ferrari what Max is to Red Bull. Curious to see if struggling will pay off for him like it did for the latter. Carlos will most definitely be gone soon though I'd say because it's been clear for a while he wants that treatment as well, and he ll never get it there.
Though 24 will likely be a lot closer up front, I think those committing long term now are clearly putting a lot of faith in the development of their teams with the next set of regs...and as usual some of them will prove to be terrible miscalculations.