Moving alt text into body copy

“In line with our content guidance we have removed the alt text field and suggested that alt text descriptions should be added to the main body copy instead. This means the description is available to everyone”
I guess there are a few challenges here.
First is semantic content in alt tags; a chart illustrating relative cost of living in four European countries might have an alt like “bar chart with red, blue, and green bars”; or it could have an alt tag like “the cost of living in Estonia is broadly twice as high as in France and Belgium”; or it could have an alt tag that read “a chart that suggests the disparity in cost of living across the continent may have a negative impact on the EU parliament’s ability to manage benefit payments”. The issue is the intent of the page creator: why are you making the page in the first place, and why are you adding a figure?
Clearly, any action that reduces the utility of gov.uk pages for any citizen is wrong, but will the recommendation that content designers weave the alt tag into the flow of the page (like a caption?) result in better semantic value for people who can’t see the pictures? I hope so, but I’m also hoping this change is closely monitored and assessed.