[Dusseldorf]

Because without this early resistance, there wouldn't even be vague promises of hobbyist/student exemptions. I think it's important to make community objection to the entire idea known loud and clear, especially when changes like these are absolutely ratcheting.

[kodebach]

Starting from their first announcement of this, Google has explicitly asked for comments and feedback from affected developers. They have a Google Form for exactly that linked on all the announcement pages.

The exceptions for students/hobbyist were always promised, but the "advanced flow" came later based on this feedback. AFAICT Google has, so far, only made things better after the initial announcement. I don't see why we shouldn't give them the benefit of doubt, at least until we have some specifics.

Pushing this open letter out just days/weeks before Google promised the next major update just seems off.