Why did it take a FTC rule to make this happen?
Discussion
Good question. Ideally, consumer demand should have organically prompted change long ago; but I think consumers as a whole have become too apathetic. I chalk it up to Deranged Fiat Mind syndrome.
In this case it looks like the incitive was to say FU to the consumer and market forces wasn't able to overcome that
Yeah, that's pretty much what you'd expect when the only 'force' the market attempted to apply seemed to be "Stop doing business with me, or I'm taking my business elsewhere."
Scale of complaints wasn’t high enough across industry - is my guess. But collectively you notice a pattern of abuse.