I am glad you brought it up, but it is the reliance on API provided by any company can be changed, restricted or rescinded at will. The mere fact that APIs have become so commonplace has always struck me as problematic ( and became more apparent during some of FB depositions ). You are effectively relying on a goodwill of another entity. You can have zero to no expectation that it will serve you today or tomorrow just because.

Can we return to dumb protocol designs? No?

Oh well, I guess we did not suffer enough yet then.

edit: All this twitter drama may actually result in useful changes to to the net.