I think that's a fair and accurate description of the actual motivations.

It really does seem like a short sighted attempt to capitalize on the success of other mediums at the expense of the actual value their service and app provides.

>Finding attention-holding UX patterns are HARD,

Is holding the users attention in the Spotify UI contributing to a significant part of the value users derive from Spotify as a service?

Edit: service > derive

Now we can find out if they're craven, stupid, or craven and stupid

>taking actions

do you think you could be a little more vague

>You can disagree with an opinion but the platform shouldn’t be banning things that aren’t illegal and still get 230.

Why not

It's basically a lower-intestine-to-asshole alignment device