Actually, this could possibly work to make both sides of the equation have a better experience.
Having split presentation sides could lure companies that have left E3 behind back, on one side or the other. For example, companies like Sony and EA can have their own separate E3 adjacent events, and and then have a customer facing booth that's focused on promo for stuff that's actually available soon. Or, a company could have a press only presence for closed doors/hands off presentations without a need for a mostly useless customer facing booth.
Or, for the case of companies that want both, you don't have that awkward situation where lines for playable demos get bogged down for consumers because some PR rep had a media member cut the line to get their demo in for an article.
I say let's give it a chance to crash and burn before shytting on it.