[disgruntledphd2]

Firstly, you'd probably want 50% data people, 50% engineers to make that work acceptably. Secondly, that kind of stuff is totally viable to throw automated grid-search at, especially if you've just been acquired by a profitable company.

Finally, I reckon that the comment upstream about GDPR is probably correct. Suddenly facing way harsher terms for 30% of revenue (assuming standard breakdowns) is double-plus ungood, which may have sparked this.

To be fair, if I were them, I'd totally have taken the money and ran.