Did anyone get screwed over?

If you start with >4000 lift in aether raids, you start the season with the lowest lift value for the tier in which you finished last season.

If someone attacks you and you lose lift, will you not get demoted immediately, and your defensive fortress lose a level?

I thought this might be the case, so I attacked as soon as the new season began. I returned to find that I had one defense win. If I had lost that match, I would effectively have lost 500 dew.

How is this fair? Not everyone is in a time zone or has a schedule that allows them to attack as soon as the new season begins. If you happen to be one of those people who can, then you get an advantage because you score the 100-200 lift, and when someone attacks you, even if you lose, you won't get demoted and lose a level on your defense fortress.