I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say for the better. 44" would've opened up the ride to more people to ride, which makes for longer wait times, sure, but the problem Universal faces right now is not enough attractions younger children can ride. I get really small children aren't ready for this. I'm not arguing that. But at 5-6 you're typically ready for these types of thrills, but the average height of even a 6 year old is only 44"-47". It's not until children are 7-8 years old where the average child hits 48".
This causes a problem within WWoHP as all 3 main attractions (FJ, Gringotts and Hagrid) will now be 48", Hippogriff is 36" and HE is all ages, but it's more or less a form of transportation. Now 48" is better than the 54" that Dragon Challenge was and it's a much more fitting experience to the land. I just know that Many parents come to UOR from a Disney vacation because their older kids want to come, but there's not enough to satisfy the littler ones. This isn't just some made up stuff either, this is stuff I hear about a decent amount.
Now I get Universal and Disney aren't necessarily targeting the same audiences, but with Universal trying to bite into those that go to WDW, they are getting more and more families staying on-site which in turn means they also need to build more rides that aren't motion simulators/3D rides and have limited or no height requirements. The older crowd can have their thrills, but while they get the thrills there also has to be a little something for everyone else who either won't/can't ride such an attraction or isn't tall enough. I know
@Andy has talked about how hard it is as a parent of a young child to go to Universal.
EDIT: This sort of spun out into a general resort post by accident. I'm extremely excited for the ride, just making note of something with the height requirements in the WWoHP for the main attractions.