[Ian_Kerins]

Interesting take on it. Some people probably wouldn't like to be called soft but there is likely some truth to it.

I feel it really comes down to priorities.

Scraping has always been a means to a end for most companies. Get data and then use it for something valuable. Before getting the data was easy, but now it is getting increasingly harder.

I think the key here is highlighting the fact that the time of cheap/easy/low skilled access to web data is ending. Companies either need to skill up on understanding how to bypass anti-bots or pay someone else to do it for them and they focus on the data.

[fidansin]

I just worry we're collapsing two things into one bucket: harder in absolute terms vs harder relative to how much real engineering effort teams are willing to invest.

Those aren't the same, and to me the distinction matters.