Are the Steam region locks backwards compatible? Are there any workarounds?

Just recently, there has been an update to Steam's region locking, which affects gifting where games that are region locked can be activated on accounts outside the countries it is locked to, but cannot be played.
(ie. A game purchased in Russia cannot be played on an US account. It can be activated on one, but not played using one.)

As an Australian, we are given the full price (in AUD to USD) conversions.
I was wondering: Are these region-locks backwards compatible?

So, if I was to buy all my games in a full-paying country (ie. Australia or the USA), would I still be able to play them in a lower-paying country (ie. Russia and Malaysia)?

Secondly, would there be any workaround if I was to be in one of those lower-paying countries and want to purchase the games at the full US/AU/Whatever price so that it can still be played outside the lower-priced countries, instead of paying the lower price/currency?
For example (with the conversion rates at the time of edit): Counter-Strike:Global Offensive for 55.42MYR/20.83SGD/14.99USD instead of their lowered 14.99MYR/14.99SGD counterparts?

Because then if it was region locked, my Steam account would be practically useless during my university years overseas.