If anything, that makes this internal announcement worse because of the whiplash.
"We're going to make PSC less onerous and stressful by only doing it once a year!"
"Just kidding, we're actually going full Hunger Games with the new once-a-year cycle!"
There's something interesting going on here. I agree that people will probably perceive annual PSC as less stressful than semiannual PSC. But even there, some people might not.
And there is a point where more frequent is very clearly less stressful. If you did PSC once a week, it wouldn't be cause for stress, it would just be something you did every week.
After copy-and-pasting the same answers year after year in the self evaluation form, my manager got the message. That was, what, 10 years ago?
Now, once per year, we have a 20min meeting, he tells me “good job”, gives my new salary and RSUs, and we’re good.
It’s great.