It's a problematic change, but is actually more usable. Now as a developer, I don't have to worry about changing the URL too much, in order to enable deep linki

It's a problematic change, but is actually more usable. Now as a developer, I don't have to worry about changing the URL too much, in order to enable deep linking and the back button. I also don't have to worry about the unsightly but useful query parameters on a search page. This should become the new standard. It's not like the mailboxes that the USPS is removing, ostensibly in response to declining mail volume. The mail boxes weren't in the way. They were built according to the city codes. Removing them before an election is all downside, and no upside. The path and query params in the URL are in the way. If you're making a page that's a list of data that gets filtered, each time you change one of the filters, and call replaceState when it changes, it would change the URL bar. That's visual noise. I used to be against this, because I'm against Google's overall agenda with the web. I thought about it and couldn't deny the usefulness of being consistent across mobile and desktop, and letting the URL change as frequently as is useful from the developer perspective.