It just seems an incredibly stupid hill to die on. OK, not 'die', but get into an unnecessarily attritional fistfight with people you really ought to be trying to keep on board, having pissed them off repeatedly both with actions and words said and unsaid (and where they were said and unsaid).

Why do this?

They were crowing about booming subscriber numbers mid-2024, when there were plenty of meta stories being published and paywalled.

They claim they can prevent meta stories from gaining general distribution. They also claim they have reduced the earnings going to those stories that are read - because the readers have registered an explicit interest in them.

Either they were lying, or they have now decided to take pointless action just for the sake of winding people up.

Or (c) both of the above...