It's not even a good copycat lol

Check out Beeper

I think more importantly, other people don't want to engage with people who have a camera attached to their head.

sh.it.happens

Fair enough. I have it on, not much of a problem for me to recognize the apps but it gives a much more consistent look to my home page. I agree that Material You has sacrificed productivity in favor of appearance, and a lot of people may not like it. Meanwhile, I personally don't have much of a problem with that.

Can't you turn it off?

Nothing substantial. They do it with every version.

They want to avoid Meta from repeating history:

Embrace, Extend and Extinguish