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If you can access it programatically, then you can access it at scale which means you can quickly scrape content and replicate it somewhere else. Many business rely on a model where the data or information they generate is meant to be consumed by a human.

For example, Google temporarily bans your IP when you hit things like Google Play urls multiple times in a few minutes. This is clearly an attempt to block anyone but a human to extract information from the Play store.

I can imagine some companies wanting that data to be accessed in a specific delivery format (i.e. with branding experience attached).

Also might be concerned about inaccuracies from variable pricing models for example. There’s a few reasons why you may not want it accessible - hence one of the reasons why CORS is even a thing.

The API would bypass ads on the page?

I feel like this would have the same sort of friction that RSS had.

Which is to say, it could certainly still work.