A level students at an advantage? In contrast to next year's A level students?

I was wondering. Seeing as a lot of Sixth forms and colleges are going to be adopting the new linear A levels and making away with the AS exams (I am aware some will keep them, some). This means that universities will be more dependent on an individual's GCSE's results, right? It also means that A level predictions would be considerably less 'reliable' than they would if a person was assessed on how they performed in the AS exams.

Even Cambridge opposed the idea. In a telegraph article it was mentioned that:

The university says it wants to “strongly encourage” schools to retain the AS when major reforms to the qualification system are introduced next year.In a letter to every school and college in the country, it suggests that taking the exams – sat at the end of the lower-sixth – puts students at an advantage because they act as a “robust indicator” of pupils’ ability.

(...)

“This will provide us with a strong measure of applicants’ recent academic progress, will assist us and the students in judging whether an application to Cambridge is likely to be competitive, and will provide reassurance that grade predictions are not relied upon too heavily in a new system.”

Would this mean that say if a person had A level predictions of A*AA predicated on their AS level performance as opposed to someone who had the same prediction but on their GCSE's that the former individual will be seen as more competitive?

I personally think so.