In 2016 this wasn’t obviously happening/common knowledge. Remember to blame the perpetrators, not the victims.
Huh? You still don't know how this works, do you?
I mean, you can blame whoever you want, even Pikachu. Neither Niantic nor even one person cares who you blame.
In Russia people who warned about it were mocked as paranoid boomers. Today I wonder how many of them were paid or just encouraged to do the mocking.