Similar thing happening Romania too, it's disheartening but in a country where the meat industry was already hit hard I can understand the economic reasons behind it, but that doesn't mean I'm a fan of it.
Of course a lot of people are also just afraid of anything synthetic and "unnatural", falling into the same category as GMOs.
As a UI designer, no it's not just them. We need to know how people are using features to know if we should prioritise or deprioritise work on them and what work we might want to put in them.
I don't see the part of the article that mentions that?