I don't think the driving force of this change is either aesthetics or gov't policy. I think Musk is trying to maximizing Twitter's time on site and if you remove the headlines (and add 5 second delays on link redirects), it decreases the click-through rate on the links. Musk knows that if he outlaws all non-paid links, it would result in an uproar from media companies and users, so he is making the experience as bad as possible so people choose to stop linking out on their own.
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