You are all missing the point on NRE. It was never about conferring a benefit on older workers. Precisely the opposite. The purpose of NRE was to put pressure on older workers that the company no longer wants and convince them to voluntarily leave at 55 with gratitude to their management who kindly kept them on for a few years as the bogus performance reviews piled up.
The so-called elimination of NRE is likely the combination of two things: 1) no more protection for those who are clearly abusing the system, and 2) dialing up the pressure on the targeted older workers to leave voluntarily with even more gratitude toward the managers who could have let you go but worked the system to squeak you over finish line .
Stop wasting your energy on this lawyering-up cr-p. Not much has changed except that older workers will now find themselves compelled to plant a big wet one on their boss’s backside as they voluntarily exit. Anyone who has made it this far in their career can surely find the strength to pucker up one last time.