I wonder how much of this is about cracking down on Newpipe, ReVanced and other unauthorized clients.

Escape The Technocracy IntelTechniques Blog / Unredacted Magazine

Personally I don’t need or want any of those things on my phone.

I wait for the first point release to upgrade, usually most of the issues have been worked out by then.

They have business offerings, but the client is still free. There are also many other Matrix Clients.