(I worked on the team that added the tbs= parameter, 14 years ago.) There's nothing nefarious here. The integration of &tbs= is deeply tied into GWS; it's wri

(I worked on the team that added the tbs= parameter, 14 years ago.) There's nothing nefarious here. The integration of &tbs= is deeply tied into GWS; it's written into the C++ substrate, while most of the rest of the server has been rewritten in Java + a bunch of custom languages. Most likely they simply can't remove it - it's permanent technical debt that nobody has the expertise to touch anymore. Changing the UI is all done in a plugin these days, and is a relatively trivial change.