While I'm glad they fixed it (upgrading past Catalina was not going to happen), It's going to take me a LONG time to trust them again.
The fact that they could rationalize their own thought process to think this was a good idea or even anywhere close to acceptable, at best leads me to doubt their judgement. At worst, well it's best to assume incompetence over malice but you can see what doors this would open in the future.
Now we know they CAN do this without it being obvious to most users, which is a new dimension of risk regardless of intent.
The fact that they could rationalize their own thought process to think this was a good idea or even anywhere close to acceptable, at best leads me to doubt their judgement. At worst, well it's best to assume incompetence over malice but you can see what doors this would open in the future. Now we know they CAN do this without it being obvious to most users, which is a new dimension of risk regardless of intent.