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I am confused about this too. It seems like 99% of sites using maps would be doing it client side in which case the cost change wouldn't be a big deal, but maybe I am missing something.

They are talking about client-side APIs, but the limits are not per client IP address. They can look at the referer header to see what site embedded the map.

Not if your pages are https.

Google blocks you from seeing referred search terms and you flip it around so they can't see what server the requests on their API are coming from. Seems kind of fair, right?

They can and presumably do look at the referer header on the requests for .js files and map tiles.

So you think that the Geocoding API will work via IP limits as described in the link I provided, but regular Maps API calls will be subject to domain limits?

Probably, since the new JS Maps v3 API a key is no longer required.