I think the reason was mostly AMP. Hiding/obscuring details from the URL bar seems like much less of a big deal if the goal is to rehost someone else's content

I think the reason was mostly AMP. Hiding/obscuring details from the URL bar seems like much less of a big deal if the goal is to rehost someone else's content. The value statement of the URL goes down a lot in that case, and the push to drive users away from it starts to make sense. Either which way, I still hate it - The only non-work related ticket I've put in for chromium was a request for an option to disable this behavior entirely. It's bad form from folks who should know better.