The thing is, I kinda get it in a way. Like, having an account lets them offer so many more useful features, and over time they might just see it as not worth supporting two "types" of users, so they lean more on requiring an account.

Obviously, a lot of this is driven by execs trying to make their line go up, but even without that it does make sense to a point. Not that I agree with it at all, but I see how it would happen.