Yup, sad. I was thinking about this "flow" the other day. Every (corporate) decision - even the bad ones - begins with a thought, a brainstorm, a formal meeting, and then the bureaucratic nuts, bolts and strings.

Maybe some upper level management came across a mention of xcancel, and realized it's cutting off their profit stream (doesn't matter by how little), and it pissed them off, starting the command flow;

or maybe they have a dedicated team to ensure they can farm the most resources/data out of the user base without alternatives, like implementing the ~"X might not work with Advanced Privacy settings on Firefox. Disable it for a better experience" which I'd get all the time if I ever had to visit the main X website. Maybe that's the same team who spearheaded this new move.

Sucks. X has enough money. But for all this about "free speech", and posting porn, and all is free on X, they sure aren't going that way.