Saving some money short term, losing a whole bunch long term.

Hmm you might be right. And if 2016 has taught us anything: it might work.

What a kamikaze of a defense…

Great point, this will happen instantly.

It’s actually optimized for them. The goal is to get users to spend time and see ads etc. The UI is not made for us users.

Devils advocate here: it’s their webservice right? They determine who can access it.

If there were legislation that would force them to make it interoperable that would be one thing. But you can’t just demand access to their infrastructure.