It seems at least plausible to me that either there would be even more fraud and abuse than there already is without the time and effort to mitigate it, or that maybe their mitigation is not as effective as they'd like. This isn't meant to contradict the other theories being posted here; I don't really have any experience specific to this area, so it's possible I'm just being naive.
Yeah, I find this whole thread a bit odd. Cloudflare has been a highly regarded service for years, and suddenly people are blaming them of running a protection racket, without providing a single source or piece of evidence (or a presumably more ethical alternative, for that matter)?
As they say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence…
