Amazon virtually kills efforts to develop Alexa Skills, disappointing dozens

There was a time when it thought that Alexa would yield a robust ecosystem of apps, or Alexa Skills, that would make the voice assistant an integral part of users' lives. Amazon envisioned tens of thousands of software developers building valued abilities for Alexa that would grow the voice assistant's popularity-and help Amazon make some money.

But about seven years after launching a rewards program to encourage developers to build Skills, Alexa's most preferred abilities are the basic ones, like checking the weather. And on June 30, Amazon will stop giving out the monthly Amazon Web Services credits that have made it free for third-party developers to build and host Alexa Skills. The company also recently told devs that its Alexa Developer Rewards program was ending, virtually disincentivizing third-party devs to build for Alexa.

Scharon Harding at Ars Technica

I've never used Alexa - Amazon doesn't really have a footprint in either The Netherlands or Sweden, so I never really had to care - but I always thought the Skills were the reason it was so loved. It seemingly makes no sense to me to start killing off this feature, but then, I'm assuming Amazon has the data to back up the fact people aren't using them.

It sucks, I guess? Can someone who uses Alexa fill in the blanks for me here?