They're playing the long game here. First they assimilated browser space with Chrome, then they disabled manifest v2, and the next step will probably be some reincarnation of WEI just like you said, in order to close down the open internet for good.
If you look at the state of the web right now, most of the interactions and traffic go through the dedicated apps of the big tech (spyware, basically) who are vendor-locking the experience. I figure it will divide the web even further into two entities, one being the addictive big-tech apartheid spyware gardens, and the other being the free fediverse-like FOSS-natured web for privacy and tech enthusiasts, with severely limited interaction between the two. I'll always choose the latter, thank you very much.
Most definitely. They were complaining about them not making a profit, and they really thought blaming the few people using an Adblock made sense.
It's all to get more Premium subscriptions. The ads are an intentional problem with the "obvious solution" being advertised right there on the homepage.
Why even show content? It's the ads that people are actually here for! Can you imagine the audacity of people, wanting a little creative content amongst our cloud of vapid, capitalistic hawking.
probably like other social media today. you don't see anything you actually want to see at all, just ads, sponsored videos and stuff you didn't search for that autoplays amd takes up the screen no matter what tab you are using