Comment by dlcarrier
Not only is abandonment of the API possible, but hosts may restrict it on purpose, requiring paid access to use acessability/usability tools.
For example, Reddit encouraged those tools to use the API, then once it gained traction, they began charging exorbitant fees effectively blocking every blocking such tools.
That's a good point. Anyone who used the API properly were left with egg on their face and anyone who misused the site and just scraped HTML ended up unharmed