It's changing. I imagine that was always intended to be an introductory thing to cement their position in the marketplace.
Not a chance -- if I can't easily return things I might as well go back to in-store or use aliexpress or similar.
Good old enshittification. Make it good to attract users, then optimize for profit once the users can't leave.
It's been like that for over a decade now. I hope you're wrong, but I fear you're not.