[toss1]

Maybe, and Hanlon's Razor say's your right ('don't attribute malice where incompetence can explain it').

But it seems here mor like Hanlon's Razor is a handy cover for the fact that interest rates are up, which makes it more enticing for Etsy management to steal their sellers' funds and rake off the interest yield under a flimsy and obscure excuse.

Sure, it's only £800 here and £7000 there, but do it a few 10,000 times, and it'll yield material-to-the-bottom-line cash, and nevermind that it hurts the victims more than it benefits them.

IOW, it is just corporate theft because they can get away with it.