This thread is so confusing as it is, so I decided to write a summary of all the facts as they are on the morning of November 7th. This information is gathered from EVGA's forums and from personal correspondence with EVGA support.
Summary of the actual issue:
The VRM overheating issue is caused by an oversight in the design of the ACX 3.0 cooler. Thus it affects any and all cards equipped with said cooler. Cards with any previous iteration of the ACX coolers are not affected, nor are any EVGA cards with any other cooling, such as the hybrid cards or the founder's edition. I cannot clarify how to deal with backplateless FTW Back Edition models with ACX 3.0 -cooling, as there has been no official response nor conclusive testing on these cards as far as I know (backplate trapping heat instead of dissipating it being a big part of the problem here).
EVGA's official response to the issue is, that you should update the BIOS of any affected cards. The BIOS update increases the default RPM of your card's fans, so the card will run cooler. The update will both tune the fan curve, as well as raise the maximum RPM your fans can run on. BIOS updates for affected cards keep rolling out as soon as they can make them, most cards already had theirs out by the time of writing this. Note that people with AMD-systems might have to consult the support.
To this day EVGA still maintains the thermal pads are OPTIONAL, for those that want to take extra good care of their cooling. There are some underlying issues with this however.
Issue 1: While EVGA maintains the thermal pads mod is OPTIONAL, as of November 5th they have officially confirmed there will be thermal pads factory installed on any new cards manufactured with ACX 3.0 cooler. Prior to November 5th, the support personnel had stated that the thermal pads would not be installed. What is 100% certain is, that all cards shipped after November 1st will have the BIOS update installed by default. Again, from November 1st to November 5th the official stand was the thermal pads -mod was optional, so it is unclear if there are now 3 revisions of cards out there: Cards with no mods already sold to consumers and sent to retailers who might still have them on stock, cards with just the BIOS update shipped between 1st and 5th, and cards with both mods applied shipped from November 5th.
Issue 2: While EVGA says the BIOS update is sufficient to avoid any overheating issues, some people probably bought the card under the impression of it being very very quiet. We now have reports of cards turning from completely to silent to clearly audible after the BIOS update. Some say their cards are actually LOUD now. Personally, I have only applied the update to one brand new 1070 FTW Gaming, situated inside a Be Quiet Silent Base 800 case. During gameplay (BF1) we could hear a small increase in fan noise while the side panel of the case was open, while there definitely was no audible increase in noise level even after several hours of continuous playing once the panel was closed. So take these reports with a grain of salt. To maintain a quiet card you need to apply the thermal pads, which alone seems to be more effective than just applying the BIOS update. Applying both mods will of course yield the best results when it comes to cooling the problem areas.
Warranty and RMA-options:
EVGA has confirmed they will honor the warranty in all cases with these cards. If you don't apply any of the mods and your card burns during the warranty period, the warranty still applies. If you damage your card during BIOS installation, the warranty applies. If you damage your card during thermal pads installation, the warranty applies. And if you are uncomfortable with doing any of this yourself, you can have EVGA do it for you, which leads me to the RMA.
You basically have 2 RMA cross-shipping options available, providing you live in a country where cross-shipping is an option (consult EVGA's homepage for more info on this). Customers outside US and Canada will have to pay for return shipping. Both RMA options are otherwise free of charge, however if you wish to have EVGA send you a replacement card, upon which arriving you will send your old card back in the same box, you will have to deposit a collateral (assume the cost of the card). Once EVGA receives your old card your money will be refunded to you. The second version requires you to send your card to EVGA, upon which arriving they will send a replacement card for you. This will lead to a period of you being unable to use the computer unless, of course, you have some other GPU at your disposal. Lastly if you are within 30 days of purchase with your card you will receive a BRAND NEW card. If you have passed the 30-day limit you will most likely receive a REFURBISHED card.