Looks like the basic tier was already shrinking anyways as people were opting for the ads option more and more, so they decided to nix it anyways to make their own lives easier.

Makes sense, its 1 less "mode" to support and that is a big deal for QA testing.

It was inevitable after the response to Netflix's crackdown on account sharing and progressively higher prices.
That was a critical moment for the users to exercise their leverage against a new, worse direction in the value of streaming offerings, but the general user lacked the foresight to understand that.

Now that it's been proven that the general user will maintain their subscription even after such drastic changes in value, the trend of a loss of flexibility in tier options, the inclusion of ads in more, if not all, tier options; multi-month subscription requirements, and the complete loss of account sharing will all continue, not only in Netflix but accross all the streaming industry as a whole.

Verizon just upped the price of my grandfathered plan I was on. They told me that on the phone. I just left, luckily that was an option.