@atomicpoet @Gargron

Well, note also the issue of "perverse incentives".

Companies like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo etc are all threatened by the possibility of a 3rd party app interfering with their revenue flows. Having an API creates the illusion of openness, but constantly changing it makes competition ineffective.

This is a non-issue for open-source distributed media like Mastodon (or any Fediverse software). It's a free market, not a closed shop.